LIBRARY 


PRI^CETOW,  W.  J. 


No, 


DONATION   OF 

S  A  M  U  K  1.    A  a  N  K  W  , 

^       ^.^  o  f     H  H  1  L  A  J)  K  L  P  U  1  A  .    P  A  . 

Letter      O    '•C-  "^  /  J  d  • 


/■ 


ADVERTISEMENT  TO  VOL.  II. 


Whex  the  an-angements  for  iiublishing  this  work  were  made, 
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The  second  volume  first  makes  its  appearance ;  as  the  memoir, 
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volume  are  now  complete,  and  it  is  in  press. 

New-York,  Nov.^Z,  1830. 


THE 


WORKS 


THE     RIGHT     REVEREND 


JOHN    STARK  'llAVENSCROFT,    D.  D., 

BISHOP    OF   THE    PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH   IN   THE 
DIOCESE    OF   NORTH-CAKOHNA. 


CONTAINING   HIS 


SERMONS,  CHARGES,  AND  CONTROVERSIAL  TRACTS 


TO   WHICH   IS    PREFIXED, 


A   MEMOIR    OF    HIS    LIFE; 


DEVISED  BY  THE  AUTHOR  TO  THE    "  EPISCOPAL  BIBLE,     PRAYER  BOOK,    TRACT,  AND 

MISSIONARY    SOCIETY    OF    NORTH-CAROLINA,"    AND    NOW 

PUBLISHED  FOR  THEIR  BENEFIT. 


IN    TWO    VOLUMES. 

VOL.  II. 


NEW-YORK  : 

PROTESTANT     EPISCOPAL      PRESS. 


MDCCCXXX. 


Southern  District  of  New-York,  ss. 

Be  It  i&cmcraberell,  That  on  the  19th  day  of  Nov.  A.  D.,  1830,  in  the  55th 
year  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America,  John  V.  Van  Ingen,  of  the  said 
District,  (for  William  M.  Green,  George  W.  Freeman,  and  William  D.  Cairns,  proprietors,  in  trust 
•for  the  "  Episcopal  Bible,  Prayer  Book,  Tract,  and  Missionary  Society  of  North  Carolina,")  hath 
deposited  in  this  office,  the  title  of  a  Book,  the  right  whereof  he  claims  as  Proprietor,  in  the  words 
following,  to  wit : 

"The  works  of  the  Right  Reverend  John  Stark  Ravenscroft,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  diocese  ol  North  Carolina.  Containing  his  Sermons,  Charges,  and  Con- 
troversial Tracts ;  to  which  is  prefixed,  a  Memoir  of  his  Life.  Devised  by  the  author  to  the  "  Epis- 
copal Bible,  Prayer  Book,  Tract,  and  Missionary  Society  of  North  Carolina,"  and  now  pub- 
lished for  their  benefit."      In  two  volumes. 

In  conformity  to  the  Actof  Congress  of  the  United  States,  entitled  "An  Act  for  the  encouragement 
of  Learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  Maps,  Charts,  and  Books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of 
such  copies,  during  the  time  therein  mentioned."  And  also  to  an  Act,  entitled  "  An  Act,  sup- 
plemental y  to  an  Act,  entitled  an  Act  for  the  encouragement  of  Learning,  by  securing  the  copies 
of  Maps,  Charts,  and  Books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies,  during  the  times 
therein  mentioned,  and  extending  the  benefits  thereof  to  the  arts  of  designing,  engraving,  and 
etching  historical  and  other  prints?' 

FREDERICK    J    BETTS, 
Clerk  of  the  Southern  District  of  Neur-  York 


CONTENTS    TO    V  O  L    II 


SERMON  I. 

THE    REASONABLENESS    OF    RELIGION. 


PAGE. 


1  Kings  xviii.  21. — And  Elijah  came  unto  all  the  people,  and  said,  How  long 
halt  ye  between  two  opinions  ?  If  the  Lord  be  God,  follow  him  -.but 
if  Baal,  then  follow  him. .-         -       1 

SERMON  II. 

THE    NECESSITY     OF    EXERCISING    A    RIGHT     JUDGMENT 

IN    OUR    RELIGIOUS    CONCERNS. 

Luke  xii.  57. — Yea,  and  why,  even  of  yourselves,  judge  ye  not  what  is  right  1     14 

SERMON  III. 

THE    FOLLY     AND    WICKEDNESS     OF     EXCUSES     AGAINST 
RELIGION. 

Luke  xiv.  18.— And  they  all,  with  one  consent,  began  to  make  excuse.  -    25 

SERMON  IV. 

FAITH    IN    GOD. 

Hebrews  xi.  6.— But  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  Him;  for  he 
that  Cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  the  rewarder 
of  them  that  diligently  seek  him 36 

SERMON  V. 

god's    anger    AGAINST    THE    WICKED. 
PsALks  vii.  ll.^GoD  is  angry  with  the  wicked  every  da)'.  -        -         -    49 

SERMON  VI. 

THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

1  Corinthians  ii.  14.— But  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  for  they  are  fooUshness  unto  him  ;  neither  can  he 
know  theih,  because  they  are  spiritually  discerned.  -         -        -     61 

SERMON  VII. 

SIN. 

Romans  vii.  13.— But  sin,  that  it  might  appear  sin,  working  death  in  me  by 
that  which  is  good ;  that  sin  by  the  commandment  might  become 
exceeding  sinful. 73 

SERMON  VIII. 

SIN    AND    DEATH. 

Romans  v.  12.— Wherefore  as  bj  one  man,  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and 
death  by  sin  ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have 
smned. 85 


*^  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

SERMON  IX. 

DANGER    OF    BEING    HARDENED    IN    SIN. 

Hebrews    iii.  13,   last  clause.— Lest  any  of  you  be  hardened  through  the 

deccitf  uhicss  of  sin. 97 

SERMON  X. 

WICKEDNESS  THE  CAUSE  OF  BLINDNESS. 

Daniel  xii.  10,   latler  part. — And  none  of  the  wicked  shall  understand ;  but 

the  wise  shall  understand. 109 

SERMON  XI. 

THE    jailor's    question    TO    ST.    PAUL. 

Acts  XVI.  30,  ZaWercZawse.— What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?  -         -        -119 

SERMON  XII. 

CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE. 

John  iii,  16. — For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life. -        -  133 

SERMON  XIII. 

CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING. 

2  Corinthians  v.  21. — For  he  hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no 

sin,  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him.  -  144 

SERMON  XIV. 

THE    MEDIATORIAL     OFFICE    OF    CHRIST. 

1  Timothy  ii.  5. — For  there  is  one  God,  and  one  mediator  between  God  and 

men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus. -         -  157 

SERMON  XV. 

CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW. 

Romans  x.  4. — For  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every 

one  that  believeth. icg 

SERMON  XVI. 

CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL. 

John  xv.  5,  latter  clause, — For  without  me  ye  can  do  nothing.      -  .      -        -  182 

SERMON    XVII. 

ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLY    THROUGH    CHRIST. 

MicAH  vi.  6. — Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and  bow  myself  before 

the  high  God? "        -        -  195 

SERMON  XVIII. 

Christ's  call  to  repentance. 

Luke  v,  32. — I  came  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance.      -  207 


CONTENTS.  V* 

PAGE. 

SERMON  XIX. 

HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST. 

Luke  ix.  23. — And  he  said  to  them  all,  If  any  man  will  come  after  nie,  let  him 

deny  himselfj  and  take  up  liis  cross  daily,  and  follow  nic.  -        -  217 

SERMON  XX. 

THE    CAUSE    OF    NOT    COMING    TO    CHRIST. 
John  v.  40. — And  ye  will  not  come  to  me,  that  ye  might  have  life.  -        -  229 

SERMON  XXI. 

REVERENCE    OF    CHRIST. 

Matthew  xxi.  37. — But,  last  of  all,  he  sent  unto  them  his  Son,  saying,  They 

will  reverence  my  Son. 242 

SERMON   XXII. 

CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST. 

Matthew  x.  32,  33. — Whosoever,  therefore,  shall  confess  me  before  men,  him 
will  I  confess  also  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  But  whoso- 
ever shall  deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  deny  before  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven. 253 

SERMON  XXIII. 

FAITH    IN    CHRIST    THE    ONLY    CONDITION  OF  SALVATION. 

John    viii.  24.  last  clause. — For  if  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He,  ye  shall  die  in 


your  sms. 


265 


SERMON  XXIV. 


LIFE  AND   IMMORTALITY  BROUGHT  TO  LIGHT  BY  THE 
GOSPEL. 

2  Timothy  i.  10. — Who  hath  abolished  death,  and  brought  life  and  immortahty 

to  light  by  the  gospel.     --- 276 

SERMON  XXV. 

SALVATION    TROUGH    GRACE. SACRAMENTAL. 

1  John  iv.  10. — Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us, 

and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins.  ...  288 

SERMON  XXVI. 

NEGLECT    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

Hebrews  ii.  3,  4. — How  shall  we  escape,  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation; 
which  at  the  first  began  to  be  spoken  by  the  Lord,  and  was  confirmed 
unto  us  by  them  that  heard  him ;  God  also  bearing  them  witness, 
both  with  signs  and  wonders,  and  with  divers  miracles  and  gifts  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  according  to  his  own  will  7  .        .        ,        .  301 


V»  CONTENTS. 

SERMON  XXVn. 

THE  DANGER  OF  DELAYED  REPENTANCE. 

Hebrews  xii.  16,  17. — Lest  there  be  any  fornicator,  or  profane  person,  as 
Esau,  who  for  one  morsel  of  meat  sold  his  birthright ;  for  ye  know 
how  that  afterward,  when  he  would  have  inherited  the  blessing,  he 
was  rejected  ;  for  he  found  no  place  of  repentance,  though  he  sought 
it  careSfuUy  with  tears.  311 

SERMON  XXVIII. 

THE  WARNINGS  OF  CONSCIENCE  NOT  TO  BE    NEGLECTED. 

Acts  xxiv.  25. — And  as  he  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and  judg- 
ment to  come,  Felix  trembled,  and  answered.  Go  thy  way  for  this 
time  ;  when  I  have  a  more  convenient  season,  1  will  call  for  thee.      -  322 

SERMON   XXX. 

A   WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS. 
John  iii.  18. — But  he  that  believeth  not,  is  condemned  already.      -         -        .  333 

SERMON  XXXI. 

THE    DANGER   OF    FORFEITING    THE    HEAVENLY    REST. 

Hebhews  iv.  1. — Let  us,  therefore,  fear,  lest  a  promise  being  left  us  of  entering 

into  his  rest,  any  of  you  should  seem  to  come  short  of  it.  -        -  346 

SERMON  XXXII. 

THE  RULE  OF  FUTURE  JUDGMENT. 

Matthew  vii.  21. — Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven. 359 

SERMON  XXXIII. 

THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION. 

Titus  iii.  8. — This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  these  things  I  will  that  thou 
affirm  constantly,  that  they  which  have  believed  in  God  might  be 
careful  to  maintain  good  works. 369 

SERMON  XX^IV. 

DILIGENCE    IN    RELIGION. 

2  Peter  iii.  14. — Wherefore,  beloved,  seeing  ye  look  for  such  things,  be 
diligent  that  ye  may  be  found  of  him  in  peace,  without  spot,  and 
blameless. 382 

SERMON  XXXV. 

THE    LOVE    OF    THE    WORLD    INCOMPATIBLE    WITH    THE 
LOVE    OF    CHRIST. SACRAMENTAL. 

1  John  ii.  15. — Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world. 

If  any  man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him.  -  393 

SERMON  XXXVI. 

RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION. 

2  Corinthians  xiii.  5. — Examine  yourselves,  whether  ye  be  in  the  faith  ; 

prove  your  own  selves. 409 


CONTENTS.  Vn 

SERMON  XXXVII. 

NON-COiNFORMlTY    WITH    THE    WORLD. 
Romans  xii.  2,  first  daiusc. — And  be  not  confornicd  to  this  world.  -        -  419 

SERMON  XXXVIII. 

THE    WEDDING    GARMENT. 

Matthew  xxii.  II,  12. — And  when  the  king  came  in  to  see  the  guests,  he  saw 
there  a  man  which  had  not  on  a  wedding  garment ;  and  he  said  unto 
him,  Friend,  how  earnest  thou  in  hither,  not  having  a  wedding  gar- 
ment ]     And  he  was  speechless.  .-...,  431 

SERMON  XXXIX. 

PARABLE    OF    THE    TALENTS. 

Matthew  xxv.  14 — 30. — For  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  as  a  man  travelHng 
into  a  far  country,  who  called  his  own  servants,  and  dehvered  unto 
them  his  goods.  And  unto  one  he  gave  five  talents,  to  another  two, 
and  to  another  one ;  to  every  man  according  to  his  several  ability ; 
and  straitway  took  his  journey.  Then  he  that  had  received  the  five 
talents,  went  and  traded  with  the  same,  and  made  them  other  five 
talents.  And  likewise  he  that  had  received  two,  he  also  gained  other 
two.  But  he  that  had  received  one,  went  and  digged  in  the  earth,  and 
hid  his  lord's  money.  After  a  long  time  the  lord  of  those  servants 
cometh,  and  reckoneth  with  them.  And  so  he  that  had  received  five 
talents,  came  and  brought  other  five  talents,  saying,  Lord,  thou  deli- 
veredst  unto  me  five  talents  :  behold,  I  have  gained  besides  them  five 
talents  more.  His  lord  said  unto  him.  Well  done,  thou  good  and 
faithful  servant ;  thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will 
make  thee  ruler  over  many  things  .-  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  lord. 
He  also  that  had  received  two  talents  came,  and  said.  Lord,  thou 
dehveredst  unto  me  two  talents :  behold,  I  have  gained  two  other 
talents  beside  them.  His  lord  said  unto  him,  Well  done,  good  and 
faithful  servant  ;  thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  make 
thee  ruler  over  many  things ;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  lord. 
Then  he  which  had  received  the  one  talent  came,  and  said.  Lord  I 
knew  thee  that  thou  art  a  hard  man,  reaping  where  thou  hast  not 
sown,  and  gathering  where  thou  hast  not  strewed  :  and  I  was  afraid, 
and  went  and  hid  thy  talent  in  the  earth :  lo,  there  thou  hast  that  is 
thine.  His  lord  answered  and  said  unto  him,  Thou  wicked  and 
slothful  servant,  thou  k  newest  that  I  reap  where  I  sowed  not,  and 
gather  where  I  have  not  strewed  :  thou  oughtest  therefore  to  have  put 
my  money  to  the  exchangers,  and  then  at  my  coming  I  should  have 
received  mine  own  with  usury.  Take  therefore  the  talent  from  him, 
and  give  it  unto  him  which  hath  ten  talents.  For  unto  every  one  that 
hath  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  abundance  :  but  from  him  that 
hath  not  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  he  hath.  And  cast  ye  the 
unprofitable  servant  into  outer  darkness  :  there  shall  be  weeping  and 
gnashing  of  teeth. 444 

SERMON  XL. 

PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

Luke  viii.  13.— But  that  on  the  good  ground  are  they,  who  in  an  honest  and 
good  heart,  having  heard  the  word,  keep  it,  and  bring  forth  fruit  with 
patience. 456 


Vm  CONTENTS*. 

SERMON  XLL 

FRUIT  ACCORDING  TO  SEED  SOWN. 

Galatians  vi.  7. — 15o  not  deceived ;  God  is   not  mocked:   for  whatsoever  a 

man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap.  ...---  466 

SERMON   XLII. 

UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE. 

Luke  xiii.  7. — Then  said  he  to  the  dresser  of  liis  vineyajd,  Behold,  these  three 
years  I  conic  seeking  fruit  on  this  fig  tree,  and  find  none :  cut  it  down ; 
why  cumbereth  it  the  ground  1-------  477 

SERMON  XLIII. 

THE    CAUSE    OF    UNFRUITFULNESS    IN    RELIGION. 

Hebrews  iv.  2. — But  the  word  preached  did  not  profit  them,  not  being  mixed 

with  faith  in  them  that  heard  it. 490 

SERMON  XLIV. 

GRIEVING    THE     SPIRIT. 

Ephesians  iv.  30. — And  grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  whereby  ye  are 

sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption. 503 

SERMON  XLV. 

THE    ORIGIN    AND    USE    OF    WORLDLY    AFFLICTIONS. 

Job  v.  6,  7. — Although  aflhction  cometh  not  forth  of  the  dust,  neither  doth 
trouble  spring  out  of  the  ground ;  yet  man  is  bom  unto  trouble,  as  the 
sparks  fly  upward. --  514 

SERMON  XLVI. 

THE    LOVE    OF    GOD    TO    SINNERS. SACRAMENTAL. 

1  John  iii.   1. — Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon 

us,  that  wo  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God  !  ....  526 

SERMON  XLVII. 

CAIN    AND    ABEL. SACRAMENTAL. 

Genesis  iv.  3,  4,  5. — And  in  process  of  time  it  came  to  pass,  that  Cain 
brought  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground  an  oflermg  mito  the  Lord.  And 
Abel,  he  also  brought  of  the  firstlings  of  liis  flock,  and  of  the  fat 
thereof  And  the  Lord  had  respect  unto  Abel,  and  unto  his  offering  : 
but,  unto  Cain  and  to  his  offering,  he  had  not  respect.       ...  539 

SERMON  XLVIII. 

THE  STATE  OF  THE  DEPARTED. A  FUNERAL  DISCOURSE. 

Job  xiv.    14. — If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ?       -         -    ,     -         -         .         -  551 

SERMON  XLIX. 

GOD    IS    WITNESS. 

1  Thessaloniaks  ii.  b,  last  clause. — God  is  witness.     -        -      ''V         -        -566 


SERMONS. 


SERMON  I. 

THE  REASONABLENESS  OP  RELIGION. 

1  Kings  xviii.  21. 

"  And  Elijah  came  unto  all  the  people,  and  said,  How  long  halt  ye  between  two 
opinions?  if  the  Lord  be  God,  follow  him ;  But  if  Baal,  then  follow  him." 

The  reasonableness  of  religion  is  the  reproach  of  those  who 
neglect  it ;  and  the  benefits  it  proposes  and  confers  on  those 
who  embrace  and  follow  its  salutary  laws,  is  the  just  condemna- 
tion of  all  who  are  not  led  by  its  sanctions  to  prefer  the  interests 
of  eternity  to  those  of  time ;  and  so  to  prefer  them,  as  to  mani- 
fest, in  the  conduct  of  life,  that  what  is  highest  in  value,  and 
first  in  importance,  is  chief  in  desire,  and  foremost  in  pursuit. 

Now  while  I  am  sure,  that  there  is  not  one  among  those  to 
whom  I  am  speaking  who  would  hesitate  a  moment  to  acknow- 
ledge their  belief  in  the  being  of  God,  and  the  consequent 
obligation  of  all  his  creatures  to  serve  and  please  him,  I  would  ask 
how  it  comes  to  pass,  nevertheless,  that  so  few  are  influenced,  in 
any  degree,  by  this  so  universal  admission  1  To  this,  I  doubt  not, 
that  some  would  return  one  kind  of  answer,  some  another,  and 
some  no  answer  at  all.  The  true  answer,  however,  I  fancy,  will 
be,  the  want  of  consideration,  the  neglect  of  any  serious  exami- 
tion  of  our  actual  condition,  and  of  the  truths  of  revelation,  as 
connected  with  that  condition. 

It  is  want  of  serious  reflection,  my  dear  hearers,  that  gives  to 
the  enemy  of  our  souls  his  chief  power  against  us,  and  enables 
him  to  array  the  world  and  the  things  that  are  in  it  in  so  capti- 
vating a  dress  as  to  be  taken,  by  many,  in  exchange  for  the 
favour  of  God  and  eternal  life  in  the  world  to  come. 

Vol.  II.— 1 


2  THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  RELIGION.) 

Yet  I  should  suppose,  that  if  any  thing  short  of  eternity  can 
bring  us  to  reflect  seriously,  it  must  be  the  end  that  awaits  us, 
when  this  world  and  all  its  deluding  promises  shall  pass  away  as 
a  dream  ivhen  one  cmaketh— it  must  be  the  reahty  of  our  present 
condition,  as  in  the  sight  of  God,  whether  we  are  in  his  favour, 
or  exposed  to  his  wrath— it  must  be  the  principle  by  which  we 
are  actuated  in  this  life,  and  which  shall  determine  our  state  m 
that  which  is  to  come.  But  what  says  experience  1  what  say 
the  consciences  of  the  greater  part  now  present,  both  of  young 
and  old  ?  Alas !  the  answer  is  ready  ;  we  have  not  thought  of 
these  things  ;  we  have  not  realized  them.  To-day,  then,  if  ye  will 
hear  his  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts,  but  meet  your  eternal 
interests  with  a  fair  consideration  of  their  value,  and  if  the 
Lord  he  Goj)  folloio  him,  but  ij  Baal,  then  follow  him. 

Surely,  my  friends,  it  is  a  most  fair  alternative,  and  just  such 
an  appeal  to  our  reason  and  understanding  as  contenders  for 
the  supremacy  of  human  reason  require  ;  and  such,  moreover, 
as  might  teach  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  who  ignorantly 
charge  it  with  requiring  of  them  what  is  contrary  to  reason,  to 
consider  rather,  how  very  reasonable  a  service  it  is,  how  exactly 
accommodated  to  our  condition,  calculated  to  exalt  our  reason, 
enlarge  our  perceptions,  elevate  our  hopes,  refine  our  natures, 
purify  our  hearts,  and  fit  us,  sinners  that  we  are,  for  Heavenly 

glory. 

In  discoursing  on  this  passage  of  Scripture,  I  shall 
First   point  out  what  is  to  be  understood  by  the  word  Baal, 

in  connexion  with  its  application  to  the  present  circumstances 

of  Christians  ; 

Secondly,  I  shall  inquire  into  the  general  causes  of  that 
hesitation  and  reluctance  to  embrace  religion  which  is  so  mam- 
fest  among  us ;  and,  then, 

Conclude  with  an  application  of  the  subject : 

Jlnd  Elijah  came  to  all  the  people,  and  said,  How  long  halt 
ye  between  ttvo  opinions?  if  the  Lord  be  God,  follow  Mm;  but 
if  Baal,  then  follow  him. 

L  First  I  am  to  point  out  what  is  to  be  understood  by  the 
word  Baal,  in  connexion  with  its  application  to  the  present 
circumstances  of  Christians. 


THE    REASONABLENESS    OF    RELIGION.  »> 

The  proneness  of  the  Jev/Ish  nation  to  actual  idolatry,  was 
a  very  remarkable  trait  in  the  character  of  that  people.  Re- 
peated instances  are  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament,  of  their 
offending  in  this  way,  and  it  was  not  until  after  the  severe  chas- 
tisement of  the  Babylonish  captivity  that  they  were  cured  of  it. 
The  particular  case  referred  to  in  the  text  was,  the  idolatrous 
worship  set  up  by  Jeroboam,  on  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes 
from  Rehoboam,  the  son  of  Solomon  ;  and  the  Baal  here  men- 
tioned is  generally  understood  as  the  same  with  Belus,  or  the 
Sun.  This  was  the  most  ancient  form  of  idolatry  in  the  world. 
That  the  idol  was  a  material  one,  the  context  informs  us ;  and  that 
it  had  its  too  crowded  temples,  priests,  and  sacrifices,  similar  to 
those  appointed  for  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  established  in 
Jerusalem. 

Now,  my  hearers,  I  doubt  not  but  that  it  seems  a  strange 
thing,  that  rational  beings,  especially  those  who  were  favoured 
with  an  express  revelation  of  and  from  God,  could  so  far  be 
deluded  as  to  render  homage  and  worship  to  a  senseless  block 
of  matter,  and  put  their  trust  in  a  graven  image  made  by  them- 
selves, for  help  and  deliverance,  either  in  life  or  death.  Yet  it 
differs  in  nothing  from  the  virtual  idolatry  of  wealth- worship, 
world-homage,  and  pleasure-service,  so  prevalent  in  the  Chris- 
tian world.  The  essence  of  the  sin  lies  not  in  the  thing  wor- 
shipped, but  in  the  departure  of  the  heart  from  God.  And  we 
become  just  as  criminally  idolaters  by  setting  up  an  idol  in 
our  hearts,  as  by  falling  down  before  it  in  our  houses.  The 
man  who  puts  his  trust  in  uncertain  riches  makes  gold  his  god. 
The  slave  of  sensual  pleasure  sacrifices  to  the  flesh.  The  man 
who  pursues  the  honours  and  state  of  the  world  bows  down  at 
the  shrine  of  ambition  ;  and  the  giddy,  thoughtless  votary  of  folly 
and  fashion  worships  the  ghttering  and  ever-changing  idol  of 
the  world  and  dissipation.  And  however  various  the  idols,  yet 
one  common  character  is  stamped  upon  the  worshippers — God 
is  not  in  all  their  thoughts ;  their  hearts  are  gone  away  from  him. 

In  the  present  circumstances  of  Christians,  then,  the  right 
application  of  the  word  Baal  is  to  whatever  profit,  pleasure,  or 
pursuit  interferes  with  and  supersedes  the  gospel,  and  draws 
them  off  from  the  duty  they  owe  to  God,  and  the  care  of  their 


4  THE    REASONABLENESS    OF    RELIGION. 

immortal  souls  ;  and  the  appeal  made  in  my  text  is  to  the  un- 
reasonableness of  such  a  course  of  conduct :  yet  how  dead  is 
the  world  to  so  fair  a  proposition  ;  how  readily  can  those  who 
feel  that  it  applies  unanswerably  to  their  particular  condition  put 
it  away  from  them.  Yea,  how  many  of  those  now  present,  both 
young-  and  old,  will  nevertheless  hug  their  idol  closer  to  their 
hearts,  and  stifle  the  reason  of  their  own  minds  and  the  affec- 
tionate warning  of  God's  holy  truth,  in  a  more  devoted  wor- 
ship of  their  particular  Baal.  Thus  is  that  light  which  is 
given  to  guide  them  to  their  duty  and  their  happiness,  exchanged 
for  darkness ;  and  thus  is  the  god  of  this  world  permitted  to 
blind  the  minds  of  them  that  believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glo- 
rious gospel  0/ Christ  should  shine  unto  them;  yea  thus,  and  for 
this  cause,  does  God  send  them  strong  delusion  that  they  should 
believe  a  lie — that  they  all  might  be  damned  loho  believed  not  the 
truth,  but  had  pleasure  in  unrighteousness. 

Oh  !  how  similar  in  every  age  is  the  spirit  of  infidelity  in  its 
effects,  whether  it  be  manifested  in  the  gross  idolatry  of  graven 
images,  or  in  the  more  refined  influence  of  philosophical  unbe- 
lief and  disregard  of  revelation.  How  is  the  heart  dead  to 
God,  even  under  the  clear  disclosure  of  that  love  and  mercy  in 
which  he  is  manifested  by  the  gospel,  to  the  faith  and  fear  of  his 
redeemed  creatures. 

What  numbers  are  wilfully  ignorant  of  what  he  hath  spoken 
unto  us  by  his  son.  What  still  greater  numbers  hold  themselves 
back  from  every  improvement  of  the  knowledge  they  do  pos- 
sess, and  never  take  one  step  towards  the  mercy  seat ;  never 
withhold  themselves  from  the  desire  they  can  gratify  ;  never 
think  of  Heaven,  of  Hell,  of  Death,  of  Judgment ;  never  bend 
the  knee  in  prayer,  or  ask,  what  must  I  do  to  be  saved  1  What 
multitudes  strive  to  reconcile  the  service  of  God  with  that  of  the 
Baal  whom  they  worship,  and  are  straightway  offended,  when  a 
faithful  Elijah  strips  the  mask  from  their  idol,  uncovers  the 
iniquity  of  their  hearts,  and  shows  them  its  enmity  to  God. 
Above  all,  when  he  appeals  to  their  reason,  as  in  the  words  of 
my  text,  to  prove  that  their  Baal  has  no  power  to  help  or  save 
them,  but  is  cheating  them  out  of  their  souls — that  their  boasted 
honesty   and   morality  are   but   selfish  sins,   and  not  atoning 


THE    REASONABLENESS    OF    RELIGION.  5 

saviours — how  does  the  pride  of  unhumbled  hearts  swell  and  rise 
against  the  truth,  and  a  preached  gospel  become  the  savour  of 
death,  of  double  death,  to  those  who  will  listen  neither  to  reason 
or  revelation  in  behalf  of  their  souls. 

O,  if  there  be  any  such  present  this  day,  any  who,  by  neglect 
of  the  word  and  worship  of  God,  are  joined  unto  their  idol, 
let  the  message  wherewith  I  am  charged  come  to  their  ears 
and  to  their  hearts,  in  the  power  and  spirit  of  the  God  of  Eli- 
jah, and  awaken  them  to  consider  whom  they  serve,  and  what 
wages  they  are  to  receive.  O,  let  them  for  once  hear  the 
words  of  truth  and  soberness:  and  if  the  Lord,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  be  God,  follow  him  ;  but  if  the  world,  the  flesh,  or  the 
devil,  be  God,  and  a  God  mighty  to  save,  then  follow  them. 
Be  no  longer  crippled  by  divided  opinion,  be  no  longer  deluded 
with  the  vain  expectation  that  this  world  and  the  things  that 
are  in  it,  and  the  world  to  come  and  the  things  that  are  in  it, 
at  the  right  hand  of  God,  are  to  be  gained  by  the  same  means. 
No,  there  is  a  gulf  between  them  which  we  must  pass  in  the 
present  life.  Over  this  gulf  there  is  but  one  straight  and 
narrow  way,  marked  with  the  blood  of  Christ,  and  lighted  up 
with  faith  and  holiness.  It  is  strewed,  indeed,  with  self-denial 
and  sometimes  with  suffering,  but  it  leads  to  eternal  life  and 
heavenly  glory.  O  that  you  may  this  day  hear  your  heavenly 
leader's  voice  calling  unto  you  strive  to  enter  in  at  the  straight 
gate,  for  wide  is  the  gate  and  broad  is  the  way  that  leadeth  to 
destruction. 

IL  Secondly  I  am  to  inquire  into  the  general  causes  of  that 
hesitation  and  reluctance  to  embrace  religion  which  is  so  mani- 
fest amongst  us. 

To  attempt  a  statement  of  them  all,  my  friends,  would  ex- 
ceed your  patience  and  my  strength.      Every  one,  however, 

by  a  little  attention  to  the  frame  of  his  or  her  own  spirit to  the 

motives  and  expectations  of  his  or  her  conduct,  may  supply  what 
may  either  necessarily  or  inadvertently  escape  my  notice. 

The  first  I  will  mention  is,  ignorance  of  what  religion  really 
is.  This,  as  it  is  a  very  effectual  cause  of  hesitation,  so  is  it  a 
most  inexcuseable  one,  and  what  men  are  seldom  guilty  of  in 
any  matter  of  worldly  interest.     That  it  exists  and  operates  to 


6  THE    REASONABLENESS    OF    RELIGION. 

the  injury  of  thousands,  is  capable  of  such  instant  proof  as  no 
honest  and  sincere  man  can  deny. — As  thus  : 

Let  me  ask  those  present  who  have  no  concern  with  rehgion, 
(I  fear  I  might  ask  some  who  call  themselves  Christians,) 
whether  God's  message  to  the  world  by  his  prophets,  by  Jesus 
Christ,  and  by  his  apostles,  has  received  as  careful  a  consider- 
ation of  its  evidences,  and  as  deep  a  study  of  its  doctrines,  its 
discoveries,  its  rewards,  and  penalties,  as  the  most  common  call- 
ing and  profession  by  which  men  earn  their  daily  bread  '?  Have 
its  advantages  been  inquired  into  as  diligently,  and  what  are 
considered  its  disadvantages  by  worldy  men,  been  weighed  and 
estimated  with  as  much  care  as  would  be  given  to  the  poor  con- 
cern of  the  purchase  of  an  estate  ?  Has  the  loss  or  the  gain, 
exhibited  in  its  eternal  sanctions,  been  revolved  in  the  mind  with 
the  same  caution  that  is  bestowed  on  a  speculation  of  worldly 
interest  1 

Let  those  ccncerned  answer  these  questions  according  to 
truth,  and  then  consider  how  enmity  to  God,  the  only  possession 
of  the  carnal  or  worldly  mind,  is  thus  detected  in  its  very  ele- 
ments, and  manifested  in  this  neglect  of  his  word  and  worship  ; 
and  let  them  further  reflect,  how  justly  they  may  be  charged 
with  the  idolatry  of  the  heart,  who  give  their  affections  to,  and 
place  their  dependence  upon,  some  temporal  good.  Alas  !  when 
ledgers,  and  law  books,  and  novels,  and  the  tools  of  our  trade, 
hunt  the  Bible  out  of  doors,  and  not  even  the  Lord's  day  is 
spared  from  the  business  and  the  pleasure  of  the  world,  what  is 
it  better  than  open  renunciation  of  God,  and,  under  the  light  of 
the  gospel,  how  is  it  less  criminal  than  the  actual  idolatry  of 
Heathen  lands  1 

What  !  shall  God  speak  1  shall  the  Most  High  God,  the 
maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  reveal  to  us  his  will,  and  disclose  all 
the  wonders  of  his  love  for  our  good,  and  the  sinful  creature  for 
whom  all  this  is  done,  turn  his  back  upon  it,  and  put  it  away 
from  him  as  a  thing  of  less  consequence  than  business,  or  profit, 
or  pleasure,  and  yet  think  to  stand  excused  1  Would  we  excuse 
any  dependant  who  should  thus  treat  us  1  would  we  permit  him 
to  plead  ignorance,  when  it  was  his  first  duty,  and  his  highest 
interest,  to  inform  himself,  and  to  act  accordingly  1  No,  indeed. 


THE  REASONABLENESS  OF    RELIGION.  7 

How  then  shall  those  escape  icho  neglect  so  great  salvation  ?  And 
why  shall  not  the  same  measure  be  meted  out  to  them  where- 
with they  have  measured  to  others  1  And  what  but  hesita- 
tion and  reluctance,  yea,  and  actual  hostility  to  religion,  can  be 
expected  from  those  who  are  carelessly  ignorant  of  God,  of  his 
gracious  purposes  of  mercy  towards  them,  and  of  his  wonderful 
means  to  sanctify  and  save  sinners  ! 

A  second  cause  of  hesitation  and  reluctance  to  embrace  reli- 
gion is,  love  of  the  world. 

By  love  of  the  world  I  mean,  such  delight  in  and  engagement 
with  the  poor  portion  it  has  to  bestow,  as  swallows  up  the  care 
of  the  soul,  and  drowns  men  in  destruction  and  perdition. 

In  such  persons,  sense  so  far  prevails  against  faith  as  to  hide 
from  them  the  baits  with  which  Satan  is  continually  drawing 
them  further  and  further  into  his  snare.     Arguments  in  favour 
of  the  reasonableness  and  necessity  of  religion  fall  upon  a  pre- 
occupied ear  and  a  blinded  mind.  Religion  is  not  seriously  con- 
sidered in  its  origin,  its  use,  its  end.     Even  the  occasional  con- 
victions of  conscience  are    escaped  from,  if  not   stifled ;    and 
excuses,  which  even  at  the  moment  are  felt  to  be  unsafe,  resort- 
ed to.     Oh  !  how  readily  can  the  spirit  of  the  world  make  "  the 
worse  appear  the  better  reason."   To  what  poor  perversions  and 
miserable  sophistry  will  men,  fallen  men,  resort,  to  obscure  and 
resist  the  truth,  and  give   the  god  of  this  world,  his  advantage 
against  the  gospel  of  Christ.     My  brethren  and  hearers,  shall 
we  be  warned  that  the  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with  God 
that  if  any  man  love  the  world  and   the  things   that  are  in  it,  the 
lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life,  the  love  of 
the  Father  is  not  in  him ;  shall  reason,  and  revelation,  and  expe- 
rience all  combine  to  prove  to  us,  that  all  its  enjoyments  are 
vain,  transitory,  and  unsatisfying,  that  they  cannot  fill  the  aching 
void  in  the  heart  of  an  immortal  spirit,  while  separated  from 
God  the  only  and  the  enduring  good  ;  that  the  whole  purchase 
of  its  power,  and  praise,  and  honour,  and  splendour,  cannot 
reach  the  value  of  one  soul,  or  give  to  God  a  ransom  for  its  for- 
feit. Shall  all  this  be  told  us,  and  by  the  Son  of  God  himself,  and 
any  yet  hesitate,  between  God  and  this  Baal  1     Is  there  no  help 
in  either  faith,  fear,  or  love,  against  this   modern    iMoloch,  to 


8 


THE    REASONABLENESS    OF    RELIGION. 


which  SO  many  sacrifice  themselves,  and  their  sons,  and  their 
daughters  1  Yes,  there  is  help,  thanks  be  to  God,  but  it  is  no 
where  to  be  found  but  in  the  cross  of  Christ  ;  on  that  he  over- 
came the  world,  and  the  God  of  its  idolatry  ;  and  under  this 
banner  only  can  we  obtain  the  victory,  and  gain  the  crown  of 
eternal  life.  He  lived,  he  died,  he  conquered  for  us,  my 
brethren — he  despised  its  glory,  he  overcame  its  temptation,  he 
endured  its  scoff",  he  meekly  submitted  to  its  rage,  for  the  joy  that 
was  set  before  him;  he  submitted  to  it  all,  and  from  the  throne  of 
his  glory  he  calls  to  all  his  faithful  followers,  in  the  world  ye 
shall  have  tribulation,  but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the 
xDorld.  O  let  it  strengthen  us  my  brethren  to  overcome  every 
sinful  conformity  to  its  vain  and  vicious  pursuits.  We  are  called 
to  an  incorruptible  inheritance,  we  are  offered  a  crown  of  glory, 
where  I  am  there  shall  my  servants  be  also.  For  the  joy  set  be- 
fore us,  then,  let  us  press  towards  the  mark,  for  the  prize  of  our 
high  calling,  and  show  that  this  is  the  victory  ivhich  overcometh 
the  xcorld,  even  our  faith.  But  what  shall  those  do  who  have 
not  faith  1  I  answer,  why  have  you  not  faith  1  Shines  not  the 
light  which  is  the  life  of  men  to  you  even  as  to  others  1  Have 
you  made  one  effort  to  obtain  it  1  Have  you  reflected  upon 
the  revelation  of  God's  will  ]  Have  you  opened  your  ears  and 
your  heart  to  his  message  of  mercy  1  Have  you  broken  off 
your  sins  by  repentance  1  Have  you  sought  a  throne  of  grace 
through  a  Redeemer's  merits,  or  are  you  yet  bowing  down  be- 
fore this  great  Moloch  of  eternal  death '?  How  is  it  with  you  in 
this  respect  1  O  let  God's  Holy  Word  be  your  warrant  to  come 
to  him — your  want,  your  slavery,  your  sin,  be  your  passports  to 
his  presence  :  be  not  faithless,  but  believing  ;  and,  like  wrestling 
Jacob,  hold  fast  the  word  of  promise  till  he  bless  you.  Cast  off 
the  badges  of  your  slavery,  take  up  a  new  course,  looking  to 
Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith,  till  the  day  star  arise  in 
your  heart,  and  you  realize,  with  every  faithful  disciple  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  /  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which  strength- 
eneth  me. 

The  third  and  last  cause  which  I  shall  mention  of  hesita- 
tion and  reluctance  to  embrace  the  Christian  religion  is,  the 
fear  of  shame. 


THE    REASONABLENESS    OF    RELIGION.  9 

That  numbers  are  deterred  from  embracing  religion  by  a  false 
shame,  that  it  will  expose  them  to  notice  and  remark,  to  ridicule 
and  sneering  observation,  that  it  will  separate  them  from  their 
usual  companions,  and  render  them  irksome  to  their  associates, 
with  many  other  such  false  reasonings,  is  unhappily  too  com- 
mon to  require  proof ;  and  as  it  is  generally  the  young  and  the 
timid,  who  are  thus  involved  in  difficulty,  there  is  the  greater 
need  to  point  out  the  fallacy  of  this  excuse,  and  to  guard  and 
strengthen  them  against  the  influence  of  this  false  principle. 

To  such,  therefore,  I  would  say,  in  the  first  place,  be  not 
ashamed  ivhen  it  concerneth  thy  soul,  for  there  is  a  shame  which 
hringeth  sin,  and  there  is  a  shame  ivhich  is  glory  and  grace.*  Jesus 
Christ  was  not  ashamed  to  bear  contempt  and  reproach  for 
you  ;  be  not  ashamed  to  endure  it  for  him.  This  is  a  sacrifice 
which  he  requires  of  all  who  would  be  his  disciples  ;  and  he 
warns  us,  that  if  we  are  ashamed  to  confess  him  before  men,  he 
will  be  ashamed  of,  and  disown  us,  before  his  Father. 

Next,  as  this  fear  can  only  respect  two  things,  the  persons 
from  whom  mockery  and  derision  will  come,  and  the  thing  scoff- 
ed at,  consider  my  young  friends,  whether  there  is  any  just 
ground  on  which  either  to  be  ashamed  or  afraid. 

For,  first,  what  kind  of  persons  are  they  from  whom  mockery 
and  derision  of  that /ear  of  the  Lord,  lohich  is  the  beginning  of 
wisdom,  will  come.  Is  their  weight  and  influence  in  society 
such,  that  their  contempt,  even  were  it  real,  which  it  is  not, 
would  deprive  you  of  any  rational  enjoyment,  defeat  any  real 
advantage,  or  bring  upon  you  any  actual  loss  ?  Can  your  peace 
of  mind  or  worldly  comfort  be  in  any  shape  dependant  on  the 
dissolute  and  ungodly  1  for  none  other  would  treat  your  good 
resolutions  and  endeavours  with  lightness  and  ridicule.  On  the 
other  hand,  will  not  every  good  and  pious  person  be  on  your 
side,  and  rejoice  to  support  and  countenance  you  "?  will  not 
God  be  with  you,  and  an  approving  conscience  be  a  shield  and 
defence  against  every  weapon  that  fools,  who  make  a  mock  at 
sin,  can  wield  against  you  ] 

Next,  what  is  there  in  the   thing  itself,  in  religion,  to  be 

*  Ecclus.    iv.  21. 

Vol.  II.— 2 


10  THE    REASONABLENESS    OF    RELIGION. 

ashamed  of?  Is  it  a  disgraceful  thing,  to  show  openly,  that  you 
reverence  and  love  your  Almighty  Maker  and  bountiful  Bene- 
factor 1  to  profess  your  desire  and  intention  to  serve  and  please 
Him  1  Can  it  be  a  subject  of  reproach  to  own  and  confess  that 
merciful  Saviour  who  bought  you  with  his  blood  and  redeemed 
you  from  eternal  death  ?  Is  it  shameful  to  love  goodness,  to  de- 
sire happiness,  to  hope  for  glory  1  Is  it  a  dishonourable  thing 
to  bend  the  knee  in  prayer,  to  lift  up  the  voice  in  praise,  to  learn 
the  will  of  our  heavenly  Father,  and  to  strive  to  do  it  1  Is  it  a 
ridiculous  thing  to  worship  God,  and  unite  with  saints  and 
angels,  and  with  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  in  adoring 
the  Giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift  to  us  every  way  unde- 
serving creatures  ?  Or  is  the  shame  altogether  on  the  other  side, 
and  justly  to  be  imputed  to  those  who  know  not  God,  and  obey 
not  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  1  who,  dog-like,  snap 
at  the  hand  that  feeds  them,  blaspheme  the  mercy  that  spares 
them,  and  trample  on  the  blood  that  bought  them  and  would 
save  them  ?  Is  sin  a  shameful  thing  1  Is  ingratitude  a  base 
thing  1  Is  glorying  in  our  shame  a  detestable  thing  1  Then  have 
these  mockers  at  religion  wherewithal  to  be  deeply  ashamed. 
Fear  them  not,  therefore,  my  dear  young  friends,  but  rather  fear 
Him,  who  invites  and  commands  you  to  remember  your  Crea- 
tor in  the  days  of  your  youth.  Fear  not  them  which  kill  the 
body,  but  are  not  able  to  kill  the  soul,  but  rather  fear  Him  which 
is  able  to  destroy  both  sold  and  body  in  hell !  who,  in  a  coming 
day,  will  mock  at  these  scoffers,  and  laugh  when  their  fear  cometh. 
Fear  not  to  confess  before  the  world  your  merciful  Saviour, 
but  rather  fear  lest  he  be  ashamed  of  and  deny  you,  in  that 
great  and  dreadful  day,  when  all  the  proud  and  all  who  have 
done  wickedly  shall  be  stubble,  when  the  fearful  and  unbelieving, 
and  the  abominable,  and  murderers,  and  whoremongers,  and  sorce- 
rers, and  idolaters,  and  all  liars,  shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake 
which  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone. 

Oh  !  how  beautiful  is  early  piety — how  sweet  it  is  to  see  that 
good  foundation  laid  in  youth,  which  shall  keep  them  innocent 
of  the  great  transgression,  and  enable  them  to  escape  the  pollu- 
tions that  are  in  the  world  through  lust,  which  doubles  every 
enjoyment  God  gives,  which  brightens  the  day  of  prosperity— 


THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  RELIGION.  II 

cheers   the   hour   of  adversity — makes   Hfe  joyful,  and  death 
^^PPy>  in  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of  a  resurrection  to  glory. 
These,  my  young  friends,  are   some  of  the  many  blessings 
which  religion  confers  on  those  who  seek   her  pleasant  and 
peaceful  ways.    Be  no  longer,  then,  afraid  of  the  scoff  of  fools  ; 
be  no  longer  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  ;  halt  no  longer 
between  two  opinions,  but  cast  in  your  lot  with  the  children  of 
God  here — they  will  do  you  good  mid  not   evil   all  the  days 
of  your  life;    they  will  counsel  you   with    their   experience, 
and    help   you  with   their  prayers  ;    they  will  share  in  your 
•reproach,  and  rejoice  in  your  victory.     Above  all,  the  blessed 
angels  will  glory  over  a  returning  brother  or  sister ;  your  Al- 
mighty Saviour  loill  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied; 
and  God's  reconciled  countenance  lifted  up  upon  you,  shall  guide 
and  sustain  you  on  your  way,  and  bring  you  triumphant  over 
death,  hell,  and  the  grave,  to  the  everlasting  joy  of  his  presence, 
where  trial  will  be  ended,  and  all  tears  wiped  from  your  eyes  for 
ever.     But  thither  the  scoffers  at  God  and  religion,  the  mockers 
and  despisers  of  his  people,  shall  never  come ;  their  place  is 
elsewhere  ;  they  shall,  however,  see  the  triumph  of  the  Chris- 
tian, and,  groaning  in  anguish  of  spirit,  shall  cry  out,  this  is  he 
or  she  whom  we  had  sometime  in  derision,  and  a  proverb  of 
reproach — We  fools  counted  his  life  madness,  and  his  end  to  be 
mthout  honour;  but  now,  how  is  he  numbered  loith  the  children  of 
God,  and  his  lot  is  among  the  saints.*' 

In  all  our  concerns,  we  know  by  experience,  my  friends,  that 
if  the  heart  is  not  with  the  work  it  never  prospers.  This  God 
knows  better  than  we  ;  and,  therefore,  requires  an  unqualified 
preference  of  his  service  over  all  other  pursuits,  as4he  condition 
on  which  his  blessing  will  make  it  both  pleasant  and  profitable 
tons.— My  son  give  me  thy  heart.  How,  then,  is  it  with  us  in 
this  respect  1  hath  God  no  competitor  in  our  affections?  Do 
none  of  the  many  Baals  of  the  world  and  the  flesh  contest  his 
righteous  supremacy  over  us  as  our  God  and  Saviour  1  O  enter 
deep  into  your  hearts  my  Christian  brethren,  and  let  this  search- 
ing question  hunt  out  every  lurking  deceit.  Bring  your  religion 
to  this  test,  and  try-  it  by  its  fruits. 

*  Wisdom  V.  5,  6. 


12 


THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  RELIGION. 


Are  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit^  in  all  goodness,  and  righteousnessj 
and  truth,  abundant  in  your  life  ?  is  the  world  crucified  to  you, 
and  you  to  the  world,  and  your  hope  full  of  immortahty  ?  then 
may  you  have  confidence  towards  God.  If  not^  then  may 
you  be  equally  sure,  that  in  something  your  heart  is  divided, 
for  the  fruit  of  righteousness  is  peace,  ar^d  the  effect  of  righteous- 
ness quietness  and  assurance  for  ever. 

Or  is  your  religion  tainted  with  the  spirit  of  the  world,  with 
the  vain  attempt  to  serve  two  masters  1  Try  this  also  by  the 
same  rule.  Is  your  duty  to  God  made  to  bend  to  your  worldly 
interests  and  fleshly  pleasures,  on  some  deceitful  plea  of  neces- 
sary care  for  your  family,  or  regard  for  your  health,  or  indiffer- 
ence in  the  thing,  whatever  it  may  be,  or  are  all  these  made  to 
bow  and  bend  to  the  word  of  God's  holy  requirements,  and 
chained  down  to  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity  by  the  solemn 
thought — Thou,  God,  seestme,  and  spiest  out  my  thoughts  afar  off? 
O  be  faithful  to  your  souls,  and  let  not  the  enemy  deceive  you 
with  a  form  of  godliness,  without  the  power — with  crying  Lord, 
without  doing  the  things  which  he  commands.  Remember, 
dear  brethren,  that  as  the  light  of  the  body  is  the  eye,  so  does 
the  motive  determine  the  quality  of  an  action  in  the  sight  of 
God.  Let  your  eye,  then,  be  single,  your  motive  and  intention 
right  in  the  service  of  God,  as  well  knowing  that  ye  cannot 
serve  two  masters,  and  that  his  servants  ye  are  to  ivhom  ye  obey, 
whether  of  sin  unto  death,  or  of  obedience  unto  righteousness. 

To  you,  my  poor  friends,  who  place  yourselves  above 
the  claims  of  revealed  religion,  and  the  instituted  means  of 
grace,  who  know  not  God,  and  obey  not  the  gospel  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  what  has  been  said  be  so  applied,  as  to 
awaken  you  to  a  serious  consideration  of  the  question  put  in  my 
text.  It  cannot  be  said,  indeed,  that  you  are  halting  between 
two  opinions  ;  but  evident  it  is,  that  you  have  never  given  the 
subject  the  serious  consideration  it  deserves.  Take,  then,  this 
most  fair  proposal  of  God's  merciful  warning  home  to  your 
earnest  meditations.  Begin  from  this  moment  to  act  the  part  of 
rational  beings,  by  ascertaining  what  master  you  serve,  and 
what  wages  you  are  to  expect.  Bring  your  reason  to  act  upon 
it — ^bring  the  hopes  and  fears  of  an  accountable  being  to  act 


THE  REASONABLENESS  OF  RELIGION,  13 

upon  it — bring  heaven  and  hell  to  bear  upon  the  choice  you 
shall  make  ;  and  no  longer  cheat  your  immortal  soul  out  of  its 
birthright,  by  turning  away  from  that  light  which  is  the  life 
of  men. 

Choose  ye  then,  this  day,  whom  ye  will  serve.  Let  neither 
a  careless  neglect,  a  doubting  mind,  or  a  divided  heart,  cramp 
your  endeavours,  whether  for  time  or  eternity — whether  for 
God  or  for  the  world.  Both  you  cannot  have,  as  most  likely 
you  wish  to  have  them  ;  one  only  can  be  your  portion.  If  then 
the  Lord  be  God,  folloio  him;  if  Baal  or  the  world  he  God, 
then  follow  him.  And  may  that  infinitely  merciful  God,  who  is 
not  willing  that  any  should  perish,  direct  and  assist  you  to  choose 
that  good  part  lohich  shall  not  be  taken  from  you. 


SERMON   II. 

THE   NECESSITY  OF  EXERCISING  A  RIGHT  JUDGMENT  IN  OUR 
RELIGIOUS  CONCERNS. 

St.  Luke  xii.  57. 
"  Yea,  and  why,  even  of  yourselves,  judge  ye  not  what  is  right  1" 

This  question  of  our  blessed  Lord,  addressed  to  his  hearers 
at  large,  is  a  just  reproof  of  that  perversion  of  their  moral  facul- 
ties, which  men  in  general  exhibit  on  the  subject  of  religion ; 
and  the  connexion,  in  which  the  application  is  made,  to  the  use 
of  those  faculties  on  other  subjects,  marks,  very  plainly,  the 
guilt  and  danger  incurre;!,  by  refusing  to  the  gospel  that  serious 
consideration  which  the  interests  involved  in  its  discoveries  so 
reasonably  call  for. 

By  the  exercise  of  observation  and  experience,  men  learn  to 
provide  against  those  uncertain  changes  in  the  seasons,  which 
otherwise  would  either  be  useless  or  injurious  to  their  worldly 
business — they  can  discern  the  face  of  the  sky  and  the  earth ; 
but  they  are  negligent  and  averse  to  applying  the  same  faculties 
of  discernment  to  their  spiritual  concerns,  under  the  inevitable 
condition  of  changing  one  state  of  being  for  another.  In  like 
manner,  the  controversies  which  arise  from  conflicting  temporal 
interests,  and  the  penalties  incurred  by  the  violation  of  human 
laws,  are  provided  against  and  avoided  by  corresponding  pre- 
cautions ;  while,  in  the  grand  controversy  with  God,  the  law, 
the  judge,  the  prison,  and  the  penalty,  are  disregarded  and  kept 
out  of  sight  by  those  very  beings,  who  are  so  acute  and  active 
on  the  comparatively  trifling  concerns  of  a  perishing  mortality. 

At  this  unreasonable  disregard  of  their  highest  interests,  mani- 
fested by  those  to  whom  he  addressed  himself,  our  Lord  ex- 
presses his  surprise  and  concern,  in  the  language  of  my  text. 
They  had  every  kind  of  proof  that  could  be  desired,  that  he  was 
a  teacher  sent  from  God.     They  had  all  the  means  which  the 


THE  NECESSITY  OP  EXERCISING,   &C,  15 

public  preaching  of  his  doctrine  could  give,  for  judging  of  its 
reasonableness  and  fitness  to  answer  all  the  ends  of  true  religion  ; 
and  they  had  the  evidence  of  his  life  to  manifest  its  effects,  and 
to  show,  by  example,  the  influence  it  would  have  upon  human 
happiness  ;  yet  they  refused  it,  and  thereby  incurred  a  tempoial 
ruin,  which  was  a  striking  emblem  of  that  everlasting  destruction 
denounced  against  the  rejectors  of  Christ  and  his  gospel. 

The  question  in  my  text,  then,  is  an  appeal  to  the  reason  and 
to  the  conscience  of  every  man,  on  the  folly  and  guilt  of 
refusing  or  neglecting  to  apply  the  same  principles  of  discern- 
ment and  precaution  to  his  religious  concerns,  which  are  exer- 
cised in  the  choice  and  direction  of  his  worldly  business.  And, 
in  this  view,  I  shall  endeavour  to  illustrate  and  enforce  it  in  the 
following  discourse  : 

Yea,  and  ivhy,  even  of  xjourselves,  judge  ye  not  what  is  right  ? 
And  FIRST,  As  to  the  revelation  itself.  Have  we  such  a  thing  ? 
Has  God  made  a  discovery  of  himself   to  us  beyond  what  we 
may  learn  of  him  from  his  works  ? 

This  is  the  primary  question,  which  every  accountable  being 
has  to  settle  with  himself  And  as  it  is  a  question  of  fact,  to 
be  determined  by  its  proper  evidence,  it  is  strictly  within 'the 
provmce  of  that  investigation  and  reasonable  determination 
which  my  text  authorizes  and  exhorts  to. 

It  is  very  true,  my  hearers,  that  we  grow  up  under  the  belief 
that  we  have  such  a  communication  from  God,  and,  insensibly 
almost,  we  acquire  the  knowledge  of  the  leading  facts  and 
doctrines  of  the  religion  it  teaches  ;  but  it  is  equally  true,  that 
in  general,  we  grow  up  without  that  impression  of  its  divine 
obligation  and  importance,  which  is  indispensable  to  any  personal 
benefit— any  saving  effect,  being  derived  therefrom. 

Such  being  the  case,  the  question  for  every  one's  reason  and 
conscience  to  entertain  is,  is  this  right  ?  is  it  such  a  proceeding 
as  the  reason  of  my  own  mind  approves  ?  is  it  at  all  analogous  to 
the  course  I  would  pursue  on  a  temporal  interest  of  the  same 
importance  1  And  as  the  answer  shall  in  truth  be,  will  the 
question  in  my  text  apply  l-Yea,  and  why,  even  of  yourselves, 
tiage  ye  not  what  is  right  ? 
Now  there  are  not  a  few  before  me,  who,  I  am  sure,  would 


16 


THE  NECESSITY  OP  EXERCISING 


acknowledge,  upon  reflection,  and  with  seriousness,  their  entire 
belief  in  the  scriptures,  as  a  revelation  from  God.  But  let  us 
suppose  that  doubt  is  entertained  by  some,  either  in  whole  or  in 
part ;  and  by  doubt  I  mean  honest  doubt,  and  not  the  affected 
doubts  of  those  who  must  deny,  because  they  knowingly 
disobey.  What  is  the  part  that  should  be  taken  in  such  a  case^ 
Is  it  to  take  the  doubt  for  a  certainty,  and  to  act  as  if  it  was 
estabhshed  ?  Is  it  to  let  the  doubt  remain  uninvestigated  and 
unsettled  ?  Have  doubts  and  difficulties,  of  a  very  formidable 
character,  never  been  cleared  up  on  other  subjects,  where  less 
certainty  even  is  attainable  ?  And  is  it  thus  you  act  on  a  doubt 
or  difficulty  in  the  constitution  or  law  of  the  land,  or  on  any 
point  of  serious  temporal  interest  1  If  not,  does  not  the  ques- 
tion of  my  text  meet  you  with  its  strong  reproof,  for  thus  leaving 
undetermined  the  truth  or  the  falsehood  of  a  subject,  which 
involves  more  than  all  the  certainties  of  this  world  are  worth  1 

There  are  also  not  a  few  before  me,  who  will  confess  that 
this  revelation,  thus  believed,  has  not  received  from  them  that 
attention  and  study  of  its  contents,  which  its  acknowledged 
divine  derivation  and  surpassing  importance  justly  demand. 
But  is  this  neglect  justifiable  on  any  grounds  1  Is  the  conse- 
quent ignorance  of  your  personal  interest,  in  its  high  discoveries 
and  holy  hope,  excusable  upon  any  plea  of  reasonable  allow- 
ance *?  Is  it  thus  that  the  books  which  teach  your  profession, 
the  laws  which  guard  your  personal  rights,  and  the  title  deeds 
which  secure  your  estate,  are  neglected  1  Has  the  last  will 
and  disposition  of  his  goods,  by  your  earthly  parent,  been  hastily 
glanced  at  and  laid  aside  unexamined,  or  its  contents  taken 
upon  trust  from  the  information  of  others  1  If  not,  where  does 
conscience  find  an  escape  from  the  reasonable  service  of  acting 
in  the  concerns  of  your  soul,  with  the  same  caution  and  diligence 
that  you  do  for  your  estate  1 

And  there  is  not  one  of  those  now  before  me,  who  does  not 
entertain  some  sort  of  hope  for  hereafter,  derived  from  this  very 
revelation.  But  the  appeal  which  the  question  in  my  text  makes 
to  your  consciences  is  :  Is  this  hope  well  grounded  1  Is  it  en- 
tertained according  to  the  conditions  on  which  it  is  expressly 
limited  in  this  revelation,  or  is  it  assumed  merely,  on  some  par- 


A  RIGHT  JUDGMENT  IN  OUR  RELIGIOUS  CONCERNS.  17 

tJal  or  mistaken  view  of  its  purport  and  meaning  1     What  prin- 
ciple would  guide  your  determination  of  the  right  claimed  to  an 
inheritance  in  this  world  1     Would  it  be  simply  that  the  claim- 
ant  called  himself,  or  was  called,  by  the  name  of  the  testator, 
and  professed  to  be  the   heir  ?     Would  you  not  require  some 
proof  of  relationship,  some  knowledge  of  the  family  history  and 
alhances,  an  acknowledgment  from  some  branch  thereof,  that 
the  claimant  was  of  the  blood  and  lineage  of  the  testator,  that 
he  had  not  been  disinherited,  or  had  been  restored  by  some  public 
act,  to  which  reference  could  be  had  ?     If  so-if  principles  like 
these  would  govern  your  decision,  on  a  claim  to  a  worldly  in- 
heritance, why,  Oh  !  ivhy,  even  of  yourselves,  judge  ye  not  what  is 
right  of  the  hope,  which  puts  this  world  and  its  inheritances 
with  the  small  dust  of  the  balance  1 

It  is  a  wide  spread  and  a  wasting  delusion  in  Christian  lands 
my  brethren  and  hearers,  to  entertain  the  hope  of  the  gospel 
severed  from  the  conditions  of  the  gospel ;  and  whatever  be  its 
root,  whether  the  natural  corruption  of  the  heart,  or  the  divi- 
sions which  the  enemy  hath  accomplished  in  the  Church,  it  is 
tatal  to  the  soul.     What  thousands,  under  the  grace  and  truth 
which  came  by  Jesus  Christ,  come  to  their  death  bed,  un- 
known to  any  religious  profession,  unconnected  with  the  gospel 
by  the  sacraments  of  its  hope,  and  strangers  to  the  transforma. 
tion  wrought  by  its  grace  ?     Yet  they  will  talk  of  repentance, 
speak  of  their  good  intentions,  express  sorrow  for  their  sins,  and 
hope  that  God  will  be  merciful  to  them  for  Christ's  sake    And 
this  passes  for  a  Christian  end,  and  relations  and  friends  console 
themselves  therewith,  and  dream  on  in  the  same  indifference  to 
all  that  is  written  and  commanded  by  the  Holv  Ghost  until 
their  souls  also  are  required;  and  a  death-bed  repentance 'is  the 
only  Chnstian  mark,  perhaps,  they  leave  behind  them.     But  will 
this  answer,  my  hearers  ?     May  men  safely  commit  their  souls 
to  a  death-bed  repentance  1     And  here  take  notice,  that  the 
question  is  not,  whether  a  death-bed  repentance  may  not  be 
available  to  salvation,  but  whether  the  person,  who,  under  the 
ight  and  advantages  of  the  gospel,  puts  off  his  repentance  from 
time  to  time  until  at  length  death  seizes  upon  him,  can  reason- 
ably  hope  that  is,  can  hope  from  what  is  revealed,  that  this  his 


IS 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  EXERCISING 


repentance  will  be  accepted.     Let  us  try  this  question,  then, 
upon  the  principle  recognised  in  my  text. 

In  what  condition  does  the  gospel  assume  mankind  to  be  1 
Undeniably,  in  a  state  of  condemnation  and  alienation  from  God, 
by  the  operation  of  sin.  What  is  the  declared  purpose  of  the 
gospel  1  Plainly  and  expressly,  the  recovery  of  mankind  to 
God,  by  the  defeat  of  sin,  both  in  its  love  and  in  its  practice, 
and  by  regaining  the  purity  and  holiness  of  a  new  nature.  What 
directions  and  means  does  the  gospel  prescribe  for  the  attain- 
ment of  this  end  ?  Indispensably,  repentance  towards  God 
and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  conditions  on  which 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  promised,  in  order  to  the  sanctitication  of 
the  sinner.  What  period  is  allowed,  within  which  those  con- 
ditions must  be  performed  1  None,  not  a  moment  is  allowed 
for  men  to  continue  in  sin,  after  they  are  warned  of  it  and  fur- 
nished with  the  remedy  against  it. 

Now,  my  dear  friends,  what  fear  of  God  or  regard  for  his 
word  is  manifested  by  the  person  who  knows  this,  as  all  under 
the  gospel  must  or  may  know  it,  and  yet  puts  off  his  repent- 
ance to  a  more  convenient  season  1  What  part  of  the  purpose 
of  the  gospel  is  answered  by  the  man  who  puts  off  the  very  first 
requisition  of  the  gospel  to  the  last  act  of  his  life  1  What  change 
of  heart  or  of  habit  is  wrought  in  him  who,  through  the  whole  of 
his  accountable  life,  has  walked  according  to  the  course  of  this 
world,  unknown  to  any  Christian  denomination  as  a  member 
of  their  communion — who  has  never  professed  his  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  an  open  confession  of  his  name  before 
men,  or  acknowledged  the  efficacy  of  his  death  in  the  salvation 
of  sinners,  by  partaking  of  the  appointed  sacrament  of  his  body 
and  blood  ]  Is  there,  in  all  or  any  of  this,  a  single  mark 
given  us  in  the  Scriptures,  of  the  person  who  is  entitled  to  the 
hope  of  the  gospel  ?  Is  there  a  single  lineament  or  feature  of 
the  new  man,  the  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus,  to  be  dis- 
cerned in  such  a  person  '?  If  not,  what  is  the  hope  he  enter- 
tains worth,  according  to  the  plain  principles,  and,  I  will  say,  the 
only  principles  accessible  to  us,  by  which  we  are  directed  to  try 
it  1  Why,  then,  even  of  yourselves,  judge  ye  not  what  is  right,  and 
cast  away  from  you  for  ever  this  cruel  delusion,  which  turns 


A  RIGHT  JUDGMENT  IN  OUR  RELIGIOUS  CONCERNS.  19 

th»  grace  of  our  God  into  lasciviousness,  makes  Christ  the 
minister  of  sin  by  a  wilfully  delayed  repentance,  and  the  revealed 
mercy  of  God  in  him  the  snare  and  the  destruction  of  the 
souls  he  died  to  save.  Alas  !  my  hearers,  are  there  not  many 
among  you  in  this  dangerous  condition,  many  who  have  nothing 
more  of  the  Christian  than  birth  and  baptism,  and  are  thereby 
accountable  in  a  higher  degree  1  And  will  you  smother  this 
appeal  to  your  consciences,  and  go  away  and  forget  to  try  your 
hope  by  the  standard  of  divine  truth  1  May  God  forbid.  But 
it  is  a  strong  delusion — let  us,  therefore,  try  the  question  under 
another  form. 

Suppose  an  impenitent  sinner,  who  nevertheless  comforts 
himself  with  the  hope  that  God  will  accept  him  on  the  day  of 
judgment,  is  arrested  by  a  sudden  death,  and  passed  into  eternity 
in  this  condition  ;  what  judgment  does  the  word  of  God  teach 
us  to  form  of  the  worth  of  such  a  hope  1  But  let  us  again 
suppose,  that  this  same  person,  instead  of  being  snatched  to  his 
doom,  is  warned  by  the  preaching  of  the  word,  and,  for  a  number 
of  years  afterwards,  continues  still  impenitent ;  at  length,  how- 
ever, he  is  seized  with  his  last  sickness,  and,  in  a  few  days  or 
weeks,  surrenders  his  soul,  entertaining  the  same  kind  of  hope, 
and  professing  then  to  be  penitent ;  is  his  condition  hereby 
altered  in  any  shape  for  the  better  1  Is  the  unfruitful  hope  of 
a  sick  bed  more  efficacious  than  the  equally  unfruitful  hope  of 
health  and  opportunity  ?  Is  the  intention  to  repent  at  some 
future  time,  in  which  his  day  of  grace  was  wasted,  fulfilled  and 
perfected  by  the  forced  and  suspicious  repentance  of  a  dying 
bed  ?  My  dear  friends,  consider,  God  is  not  mocked,  and,  even  of 
yourselves,  judge  what  is  right. 

But  further  yet ;  what  is  repentance  1  Is  it  the  mere  lip- 
service  of  sorrow  or  regret  expressed  for  wrong  done,  with  the 
naked  intention  to  forsake  sin  and  repair  the  evil  of  its  commis- 
sion, at  some  future  time  1  Will  this  satisfy  the  gracious  purpose 
of  this  indispensable  qualification  for  the  exercise  of  mercy  on 
the  part  of  Almighty  God  towards  sinners  1  Would  it  be 
counted  of  any  worth,  as  a  ground  of  forgiveness  and  recon- 
ciUation,  in  a  matter  of  offence  among  men  1  If  not,  lohy,  even 
of  yourselves,  judge  ye  not  what  is  riQht  ?  for  true  repentance  is 


20 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  EXERCISING 


a  godly  sorrow  for  sin,  manifested  by  an  instant  and  continued 
abandonment  of  its  practice,  by  every  possible  reparation  for  its 
commission,  by  renewed  obedience  to  the  commands  of  God, 
and  by  a  hearty  application  to  the  blood  of  Christ  for  pardon 
and  grace.  Any  thing  short  of  this  is  but  the  sorrow  of  the 
world,  which  worketh  death,  by  supposing  that  God  will  be  satis- 
fied with  words  instead  of  things,  with  professions  and  inten- 
tions instead  of  fruits  meet  for  repentance,  and  that  the  great 
work  of  preparing  a  sinful  creature  for  heavenly  glory,  by  the 
attainment  and  exhibition  of  a  new  nature  in  the  present  life, 
may  be  accomplished  under  the  feebleness  of  decay  and  the 
distractions  of  dissolution. 

And  what  is  hope,  a  good  hope,  the  hope  of  the  gospel  1  Is 
it  the  mental  delusion  of  visionary  desire,  of  unfounded  expect- 
ations, of  an  end  without  the  means  1  No,  my  hearers,  this  is 
the  hope  of  the  hypocrite,  which  shall  perish.  The  hope  of  the 
gospel  is  a  branch  of  faith,  a  saving  grace  wrought  in  the  heart 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  grounded  on  the  promises  of  God  to 
the  penitent,  through  the  merits  and  death  of  his  only  begotten 
Son.  And  as  faith  worketh  by  love  unto  obedience,  so  doth 
hope  work  by  desire  unto  purity.  Every  one,  says  the  apostle, 
that  hath  this  hope  in  him  purijieth  himself,  after  the  example 
of  Christ.  How,  then,  does  this  agree  with  the  hope  of  the 
delaying  sinner  1  O  let  your  consciences  rouse  your  reason 
to  act  upon  this  delusion,  and,  even  of  yourselves,  judge  what  is 
right.  Why  will  you  build  on  the  sand,  when  the  sure  founda- 
tion which  God  hath  laid  is  set  before  you  1  Why  will  you  add 
to  the  anxieties,  and  fears,  and  sufferings  of  your  dying  hours, 
by  putting  off  your  repentance,  and  leaving  your  peace  with 
God  unmade  until  the  feebleness  of  disease  shall  unfit  you  for  so 
serious  and  solemn  a  duty  ;  and  why  will  you  waste  your  day 
of  grace  in  treasuring  up  wrath  against  the  day  of  tsrath  and 
revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God. 

But  this  perversion  of  the  moral  faculties,  which  alone  render 
men  capable  of  religion,  stops  not  at  this  ;  the  very  disabilities 
which  it  is  the  purpose  of  divine  grace  to  supply,  are  made 
accessaries  to  unbehef  The  delusion  of  an  unfounded  hope 
may  be  exposed,  and  the  understanding  awakened  to  detect  its 


A  RIGHT  JUDGMENT  IN  OUR  RELIGIOUS  CONCERNS.  21 

fallacy — the  danger  of  delayed  repentance  may  be  exhibited, 
and  the  conscience  awakened  to  distrust  its  security.  But  the 
carnal  mind  has  yet  its  refuges  of  lies,  under  which  to  hide  its 
enmity  against  God. 

My  reason  may  be  convinced,  says  the  impenitent  sinner,  I 
may  own  the  obligations  of  God's  revealed  will,  but  I  cannot 
repent,  I  cannot  supply  the  requisites  to  a  spiritual  renewal — of 
myself  I  can  do  nothing.  Indeed  !  And  ought  not  this,  at  the 
very  outset,  mightily  to  confirm  thy  faith  in  the  divine  word  1  Is 
not  this  exactly  the  description  of  persons  for  whom  the  bless- 
ings of  redemption  and  grace,  of  instruction  and  hope,  are 
provided  by  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  1  Are  not  such 
the  very  lost  and  undone  creatures  whom  he  came  to  seek 
and  to  save,  whom  he  hath  restored  to  the  moral  competency 
of  accountable  beings,  and  whom  he  invites  to  come  to  him,  that 
they  may  have  life  1  Come,  see  a  man  which  told  me  all  things 
that  ever  I  did  !  was  the  exclamation  of  the  woman  of  Samaria^ 
when  the  secrets  of  her  life  were  discovered  to  her  by  our  Lord. 
And  shall  the  secrets  of  your  heart,  that  world  of  sin  and  misery 
within  you,  be  laid  bare  in  the  divine  word,  and  be  confirmed 
by  your  own  personal  experience  and  observation,  without  a 
similar  impression  of  its  truth,  and  confidence  in  its  efficacy  1 
Is  not  this  the  Christ,  said  the  woman ;  and  is  not  this  the 
book  of  God,  should  the  sinner  say,  did  he,  even  of  himself, 
judge  what  is  right. 

But  you  cannot  repent. — Now  how  do  you  know  this  *?  Have 
you  ever  made  the  attempt  *?  If  not,  do  you  judge  what  is  right  ? 
Do  the  Scriptures  give  any  countenance  to  a  disability  of  this 
kind  1  What  is  the  very  first  word  of  God's  message  of  mercy 
to  the  world  by  his  only  begotten  Son  1  Is  it  liot,  repent  and  be- 
lieve the  gospel  ?  Is  it  right,  then,  that  you  should  charge  God 
with  a  mockery  of  his  creatures,  in  requiring  of  them  a  condi- 
tion which  they  cannot  perform  1 

Have  you  considered  what  the  repentance  is  which  is  required 
of  you  1  If  not,  do  you  judge  xchat  is  right  in  assuming  that  you 
cannot  perform  it  ?  God  requires  of  you  to  break  off  your  sins 
by  repentance,  and  your  iniquities  by  righteousness — to  cease 
from  youF  violations  of  his  holy  law,  as  the  first  and  indispensa- 


22  THE    NECESSITY    OF    EXERCISING 

ble  step  in  a  return  to  his  favour  ?     And  do  you  say  that  you 
cannot  do  this?  that  you  cannot  refrain  from  idolatry,  blasphemy, 
Sabbath-breaking,   parricide,  murder,  adultery,  theft,  perjury, 
and  lust  1     God  req^es  you  also  to  view  sin  as  evil  in  itself — 
as  hateful  to  him,  and  ruinous  to  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men  ; 
and,  therefore,  as  a  moral  being  restored  to  religious  capacity, 
he  commands  you  to  consider  the  heinousness  of  its  nature,  its 
malignant  opposition  to  all  his  perfections,  its  utter  inconsistency 
with  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  world,  and  as  such  to  learn 
to  hate  it,  to  feel  grieved  for  having  yielded  to  its  commission, 
to  acknowledge  the  guilt  thereby  incurred,  to  implore  forgive- 
ness for  the  past,  and  to  resolve  against  it  for  the  future.     And 
do  you  say  that  you  cannot  do  this  ?  That,  as  redeemed  to  God 
and  called  to  the  knowledge  of  this  grace  by  the  gospel,  you 
cannot  apply  the  reason  of  your  own  mind,  the  experience  of 
your  own  life,  and  the  authority  of  God's  holy  word  to  judge 
what  is  right,  and  to  set  yourself  to  follow  it  1     And  do  you  not 
herein  greatly  err,  not  knowing  the  Scriptures,  and  the  power  of 
God  1     For  the  question  is  not  of  a  repentance  concluded  and 
perfected,  in  those  spiritual  attainments  to  which  it  surely  leads 
if  sincerely  followed  out ;   but  it  is  of  a  repentance  commenced 
on  the  authority  and  in  the  fear  of  God,  in  order  to  this  attain- 
ment :  nor  is  it  a  question  of  your  inclination  or  will  to  hate  and 
abandon  sin,  but  of  your  duty  as  a  moral  being,  the  subject  of 
God's  government,  and  the  object  of  his  mercy,  to   obey  his 
commands.    And  w^ill  you  say  that  you  cannot  repent  1  What ! 
hath  not  the  grace  of  God  which  bringeth  salvation  appeared  unto 
all  men,  teaching  us,  that,  denying  ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts, 
we  should  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  hi  this  present  loorld, 
looking  for  another  and  a  better,  according  to  his  promise  1  Say 
no  more,  then,  neither  give  any  entrance  to  the   thought,  that 
you  cannot  repent  in  the  sense  of  breaking  off  from  your  sins 
with  sorrow  ;  that  you  have,  by  them,  offended  God,  and  incur- 
red a  guilt  which  you  cannot  expiate  ;  for  such  is  the  condition 
only  of  devils  :   but  rather  bear  in  mind,  that  except  ye  repent,  ye 
shall  all  likewise  perish,  and  thence,  even  of  yourselves,  judge 
what  is  right. 

You  cannot  supply  the  requisites  to  a  spiritual  renewal.  True, 


A    RIGHT    JUDGMENT    IN    OUR    RELIGIOUS    CONCERNS.        23 

and  who  hath  required  this  at  your  hands  1  Doth  God  require  of 
you  to  change  your  own  heart,  to  renew  the  Holy  Spirit  in  your 
own  soul,  and  to  sanctify  your  own  corrupt  nature  1  Wherefore, 
then,  resort  to  this  deceit  of  sin  1  Do  you  in  this  judge  what  is 
right  ?  or  do  you  not  again  greatly  err,  not  knoxcng  the  Scriptures  ? 
But  hath  not  God,  whose  sole  prerogative  it  is,  promised  to 
work  this  renewal  in  you  1  Hath  he  not  provided  means  to 
that  end,  and  instructed  you  how  to  use  them  1  What  are  re- 
pentance, faith,  prayer,  the  divine  word,  the  holy  sacraments, 
but  means  of  grace  for  the  renewal  of  sinners  1  and  hath  not 
God  promised  his  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him  ?  How 
say  you,  then,  that  you  cannot  supply  the  requisites  to  a 
spiritual  change  ] 

You  cannot  command  the  seasons,  either  the  kindly  influence 
of  the  sun  and  of  the  rain  upon  the  fruits  of  the  earth  ;  but  do 
you,  therefore,  neither  plant,  nor  sow,  nor  labour,  for  the  meat 
that  perisheth  1  And  is  the  provision  made  for  the  nourishment 
of  your  souls,  by  the  bread  of  life,  less  certain  and  more  un- 
manageable than  the  seasons  on  which  the  nourishment  of  your 
bodies  depend  1  Hath  not  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  risen  upon  you 
with  healing  in  his  icings  ?  and  are  not  the  rain  and  the  dew  of 
God's  heavenly  blessing  upon  his  holy  word  and  precious  pro- 
mises made  over  to  you  in  Christ  Jesus  *?  Alas  !  my  friends, 
lohy  of  yourselves  judge  ye  not  what  is  right,  and,  by  an  Instant 
resort  to  the^means  of  grace,  labour  for  that  bread  which  endureth 
unto  everlasting  life  ? 

God  hath  opened  a  new  and  living  way  to  his  heavenly  king- 
dom, through  his  only  begotten  Son.  He  hath  called  you  to 
the  knowledge  of  this  grace  by  the  gospel ;  he  invites  and  com- 
mands you  to  believe  his  word  and  obey  his  laws,  as  the  condi- 
tion of  eternal  life.  What  you  could  not  do  for  yourselves  he 
hath  accomplished  for  you,  and  laid  your  help  upon  one  who  is 
able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by  him. 

Cast  away  from  you,  therefore,  my  dear  hearers,  these 
refuges  of  unbelief,  and  awake  to  the  truth  of  your  condition,  as 
redeemed  beings  on  probation  for  eternity,  with  means  and 
mercies  equal  to  all  your  wants. 


24  THE    NECESSITY    OF    EXERCISING,    &C. 

*  Say  not  thou,  it  is  through  the  Lord  that  I  fell  away  :  for  thou 
oughtest  not  to  do  the  things  which  he  hatcth. 

Say  not  thou,  he  hath  caused  me  to  err :  for  he  hath  no  need  of 
the  sinful  man. 

The  Lord  hateth  all  ahomination  ;  and  they  that  fear  God,  love 
it  not. 

He  himself  made  man  from  the  beginning,  and  left  him  in  the 
hand  of  his  counsel ; 

If  thou  wilt,  to  keep  the  commandments,  and  to  perform  accept- 
able faithfulness. 

He  hath  set  fire  and  water  before  thee;  stretch  forth  thy  hand 
unto  whether  thou  wilt. 

Before  man  is  life  and  death ;  and  whether  him  liketh,  shall  b^ 
given  him. 

For  the  wisdom  of  the  Lord  is  great,  and  he  is  mighty  in  power, 
and  beholdeth  all  things. 

And  his  eyes  are  upon  them  that  fear  him,  and  he  knoweth  every 
work  of  man. 

He  hath  commanded  no  man  to  do  wickedly,  neither  hath  he 
given  any  man  license  to  sin. 


♦  Ecclus.  XV.  11—90. 


SERMON   III. 

THE  FOLLY  AND  WICKEDNESS  OF  EXCUSES  AGAINST  RELIGION. 

St.  Luke  xiv.  18. 
"  And  they  all,  with  one  consent,  began  to  make  excuse." 

The  consideration  of  the  reception  which  the  gospel  has  me 
with  in  the  world,  presents  a  very  profitable  and  awakening 
reflection.  That  the  present  life  is  but  the  prelude  to  another 
and  more  important  state  of  being,  seems  the  most  indelible 
impression  Avhich  the  human  mind  has  retained ;  and,  in  their 
anxiety  to  penetrate  its  nature,  extent,  and  mode  of  application 
to  themselves,  men  have  exhausted  the  resources  of  ingenuity 
and  superstition.  Reasonably,  therefore,  might  it  be  inferred, 
that  when  information  on  this  point,  possessing  every  character 
of  certainty,  was  tendered  to  them,  it  would  be  most  eagerly 
received  and  implicitly  relied  upon.  Yet  the  history  of  the 
world,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  is  one  widely  extended  record  to 
the  contrary.  Under  every  dispensation  of  light  from  heaven, 
the  great  majority  of  mankind  have  preferred  darkness ;  and, 
turning  their  ingenuity  in  another  direction,  have  again  exhaust- 
ed it,  in  framing  excuses  for  the  perverseness  of  their  unbelief. 

Particularly  remarkable,  my  hearers,  is  this  unreasonable 
opposition  to  the  light  of  life,  under  the  full,  final,  and  satisfac- 
factory  discoveries  concerning  time  and  of  eternity,  which  God 
hath  made  to  the  world  by  his  only  begotten  Son.  A  future 
and  endless  state  of  being,  in  the  re-union  of  soul  and  body,  is 
certified  even  to  sense,  by  the  resurrection  and  ascension  into 
heaven  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus  ;  while  the  purpose  it  is  to 
answer,  of  judgment  and  retribution,  according  to  the  deeds 
done  in  the  body,  is  the  awakening,  the  equitable,  and  reason- 
able ground  of  personal  interest  and  superlative  concern  to 
every  soul  of  man.  Yet,  how  superficial  is  the  effect  of  this 
merciful  disclosure  of  the  connexion  between  time  and  eternity 

Vol.  II.— 4 


26  THE  FOLLY  AND  WICKEDNESS 

among  ourselves  ?  How  readily  do  men  patch  up  excuses  to 
quiet  an  uneasy  impression,  and  put  otf  till  to-morrow  the 
business  of  to-day  1  Yea,  how  daringly  is  this  miserable  subter- 
fuge of  sin  disregarded  by  many,  and  the  tremendous  sanctions 
of  eternity  scoffed  at  and  trodden  under  foot  ? 

There  is,  however,  another  point  of  view,  which  magnifies,  if 
possible,  the  unreasonableness  of  the  neglect  with  which  it  is 
treated.  The  gospel  unveils  our  deadly  malady  at  its  source,  in 
a  heart  estranged  from  God,  through  sin  ;  it  sets  forth  the  deep 
corruption  of  our  nature  in  terms  confirmed  by  our  own  expe- 
rience ;  it  declares  the  cause  and  the  consequences  of  our 
alienation  from  God  ;  it  exhibits  the  provision  made  for  our 
recovery  and  restoration  ;  it  offers  the  most  effectual  means  for 
the  renewal  of  our  hearts  and  the  sanctification  of  our  nature 
through  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  it  invites  every  man  to 
come  and  take  of  the  water  of  life  freely,  in  the  means  of  grace 
therein  provided. 

And  there  is  yet  a  third  feature  in  this  gracious  provision  of 
light,  and  life,  and  love,  which  stamps  the  neglect  of  its  high 
discoveries  with  unpardonable  malignity.  The  gospel  is  not 
only  the  full  disclosure,  to  us,  of  what  vi^as  otherwise  inaccessible 
to  our  sin-ruined  faculties,  on  the  high  and  anxious  interests  of 
eternity,  but  it  is  the  manifestation  of  the  highest  love  for  our 
souls— of  the  deepest  interest  in  our  welfare — and  of  the  most 
unsearchable  wisdom,  in  providing  for  our  present  and  everlast- 
ing good,  which  God  could  vouchsafe  to  a  world  of  sinners ; 
and  is,  moreover,  the  single,  the  one  only  way  whereby  to 
regain  his  favour  and  attain  the  life  and  immortahty  therein 
brought  to  light. 

This,  my  brethren,  is  a  fair  and  moderate  state  of  the  case 
between  the  gospel  and  the  world.  Yet  it  is  such  a  one,  that, 
were  it  not  sustained  by  the  uniform  testimony  of  eighteen  hun- 
dred years,  it  might  be  stigmatized  as  a  most  outrageous  libel  upon 
human  nature  ;  but,  supported,  as  it  is,  by  the  threefold  testimony 
of  prophetic  inspiration,  recorded  experience,  and  existing  condi- 
tion, it  calls  loudly  upon  all  who  are  trifling  with  God  and 
endangering  their  souls,  under  any  pretence  whatever,  to  awake 
to   their   condition — to   consider   their   obligations   under  thib 


OF  EXCUSES   AGAINST  RELIGION.  27 

manifestation  of  grace  antf  truth — to  test  their  particular  views 
by  the  standard  of  God's  word — to  weigh  the  reasons  and 
motives  of  their  conduct  in  the  balance  of  the  sanctuary ;  and 
to  act,  in  this  momentous  concern,  with  the  care  and  diligence 
of  rational,  redeemed  beings,  who  have  an  eternity  of  happiness 
or  misery  revealed  to  them,  as  the  fruit  of  the  present  short  and 
uncertain  life. 

God  only  knows,  my  dear  friends,  how  long  I  may  be  permit- 
ted to  warn  and  exhort,  and  you  to  hear  and  disregard.  My 
earthly  tabernacle  is  fast  wearing  out,  and  gives  many  intima- 
tions that  it  must,  ere  long,  be  dissolved.  Death  too,  hath  been 
busy  among  us  of  late  ;  warnings  have  flowed  thick  and  fast 
around :  while,  therefore,  we  have  space  granted  us,  let  us 
mutually  endeavour  to  improve  it,  by  considering  seriously  the 
weight  and  worth  of  those  various  excuses  which  blind  and 
harden  the  heart,  and  bar  out  sinners  from  the  needed  and 
offered  mercy  of  God. 

That  what  I  may  find  to  say  on  this  subject  may  be  the  more 
profitable  to  all,  I  shall  observe  the  following  order  : 

First,  the  excuses  themselves. 

Secondly,  their  unreasonableness  and  fallacy. 

Thirdly,  what  it  is  that  we  desire  to  be  excused  from,  and, 
then, 

Conclude  with  a  short  application  of  the  subject: 

Jlnd  they  all,  uith  one  consent,  began  to  make  excuse. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  consider  the  excuses  themselves. 

Whatever  change  may  have  taken  place  in  the  external 
circumstances  of  Christianity,  none  has  or  can  take  place  in 
its  unchangeable  nature  and  most  gracious  purpose.  In  like 
manner,  whatever  change  may  have  taken  place  in  the  external 
condition  of  mankind,  however  they  may  have  advanced  in 
knowledge,  and  improved  in  the  arts  and  accommodations  of 
civiUzed,  life  under  the  light  of  the  gospel,  yet  no  change  has 
taken  place  in  the  original  nature  and  corrupt  disposition 
of  the  being  for  whose  benefit  it  is  provided,  and  before 
whom  all  its  unspeakable  blessings  are  spread  out,  and  to  whom 
the  invitation  is  put  forth,  to  come  and  partake  of  this  heavenly 
feast.     He  is  still  the  same  fallen  creature,  to  be  saved  only  by 


28  THE  FOLLY  AND  WICKEDNESS 

grace,  and  who  can  obtain  the  grace  that  saveth  no  otherwise 
than  by  embracing  the  gospel. 

That  the  ground  of  opposition,  then,  and  the  excuses  resorted 
to,  for  the  neglect  of  this  manifestation  of  the  love  of  God  to  a 
world  of  sinners,  should  be  of  the  same  character  and  descrip- 
tion now  as  at  the  beginning,  we  are  prepared  to  expect.  And 
that  they  are  scions  from  the  same  root  of  bitterness,  the  carnal 
mind,  which  is  enmity  against  God,  the  terms  in  which  the  para- 
ble is  framed  put  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt. 

>/l  certain  man  made  a  great  supper,  and  bade  many  :  and  sent  his 
servant,  at  supper  time,  to  say  to  them  that  were  bidden,  come,  for 
all  things  are  noiv  ready ;  and  they  all,  with  one  consent,  began  to 
make  excuse.  The  first  said  unto  him,  I  have  bought  a  piece  of 
ground,  and  I  must  needs  go  and  see  it — /  pray  thee  have  me 
excused.  And  another  said,  I  have  bought  five  yoke  of  oxen,  and 
I  go  to  prove  them — /  pray  thee  have  me  excused.  Jlnd  another 
said,  I  have  married  a  wife,  and,  therefore,  I  cannot  come. 

Of  the  excuses  themselves,  then,  we  are  instructed  by  the 
parable,  that  they  are  all  of  a  worldly  and  sensual  nature,  that 
they  are  prompted  by  that  inordinate  preference  of  temporal 
advantages  and  delights,  which  constitutes  the  wisdom  of  the 
natural  man,  and  that  they  amount  to  a  wilful  rejection  of  sal- 
vation. 

The  enemy  of  God  and  man  finds  his  most  powerful  weapon 
against  our  souls,  by  presenting  the  riches  and  the  pleasures,  the 
enjoyments  and  the  sufferings  of  the  present  life,  under  such  an 
aspect  as  removes  them  altogether  from  their  lawful  and 
appointed  use,  and  renders  them  sinful  and  destructive.  Hence 
it  is  that  he  is  called  the  god  of  this  world,  and  the  spirit  that 
now  worketh  in  the  children  of  disobedience,  or  unbelief;  for  God 
has  neither  left  us  in  ignorance  of  the  true  and  profitable  use 
and  improvement  of  our  wordly  condition,  nor  yet  abridged  us 
in  the  safe  and  lawful  enjoyment  of  those  blessings  and  com- 
forts which  his  mercy  hath  bestowed  on  our  unworthiness. 

Farms  and  merchandise,  and  professions  and  occupations,  in 
all  their  variety,  are  lawful  in  themselves,  helpful  to  the  accom- 
modations of  life,  and  necessary  to  maintain  the  state  of  the 
world  ;  without  them,  mankind  must  have  continued  in  a  state  of 


OF  EXCUSES  AGAINST  RELIGION.  29 

ignorance  and  barbarism  but  little  removed  from  the  condition 
of  the  beasts  that  perish.  They  are,  therefore,  the  appointment 
of  God  for  the  order  and  repose  of  social  life  ;  and,  as  such, 
cannot,  in  themselves,  be  in  opposition  to  or  inconsistent  with 
any  other  of  his  appointments  for  the  well-being  of  his  crea- 
tures :  but  religion,  or  the  occupation  of  preparing  for  and 
securing  a  state  of  happiness  in  the  life  that  is  to  come,  is 
equally,  though  in  a  higher  sense,  the  appointment  of  God. 
Our  worldly  duties,  therefore,  so  far  as  they  are  of  God,  can 
never  be  inconsistent  with  the  duties  of  religion,  nor  form  a  jus- 
tifiable excuse  for  the  neglect  of  them.  Whenever,  therefore, 
they  conflict  with  each  other,  that  is,  when  our  wordly  interest 
or  enjoyment  comes  in  opposition  to  the  interest  of  our  souls, 
we  are  before-hand  sure  which  is  the  good  part  which  shall  not 
be  taken  from  us.  By  preferring  our  souls  to  the  world,  how- 
ever flattering  its  promises  or  frightful  its  threatenings,  we 
secure  both  present  peace  and  everlasting  reward  ;  whereas,  by 
yielding  to  the  temptation,  our  gain,  or  advantage,  or  enjoyment, 
which  ever  it  maybe,  even  if  we  succeed,  is  but  for  a  moment ; 
for  the  few  and  uncertain  years  of  the  life  that  now  is  are  loaded 
with  the  fearful  apprehensions  of  an  evil  conscience,  and  will 
be  met,  on  the  threshhold  of  eternity,  with  the  awful  inquiry, 
What  is  a  man  jyrojited,  if  he  shall  gain  the  ivhole  world  and  lose 
his  own  soul  ? 

Unanswerable,  however,  as  these  truths  are,  and  fully  as  they 
are  responded  to  by  the  secret  voice  of  every  conscience,  yet 
such  is  the  power  of  inordinate  affection,  of  the  law  in  the  mem- 
bers waring  against  the  law  of  the  mind,  that  the  world,  called 
Christian,  is  but  one  mournful  display,  that  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  are  foolishness  to  the  natural  man.  His  prefer- 
ence is  for  the  things  that  are  seen,  his  dependence  is  upon  the 
things  which  perish,  his  expectations  are  limited  by  time,  his 
views  of  the  future  are  dark  and  uneasy,  yea,  sometimes  trou- 
blesome and  painful ;  but  they  can  be  obscured  or  blotted  out 
under  the  care  of  other  things,  and,  while  this  can  be  done,  he 
begs  to  be  excused.  He  looks  light  in  the  face,  the  light  of 
eternal  life  in  the  discovery  of  the  gospel,  and  yet  he  prefers 
darkness ;     hence   it  is  that  worldly  prosperity  and  worldly 


30 


THF,  FOLLY  AND  WICKEDNESS 


engagement  are  both  such  enemies  to  the  soul.  J\*ot  many 
tcise  men  after  tlie  jiesh,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble  are 
called  ;  called,  indeed,  they  are,  but  they  pray  to  be  excused,  and, 
therefore,  the  apostle  expresses  their  refusal  in  a  phraseology 
peculiar  to  the  Scriptures.  In  like  manner,  they  that  will  be 
rich,  says  the  same  apostle,  they  whose  hearts  are  set  upon  a 
portion  in  this  life,  fall  into  temptation  and  a  snare,  and  into  many 
foolish  and  hurtful  lusts,  which  drotvn  men  in  destruction  and  per- 
dition, so  that  if  our  gospel  be  hid  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost, 
through  inordinate  preference  of  temporal  advantages  and  de- 
lights, or,  as  the  same  blessed  apostle  again  expresses  it,  in  whom 
the  god  of  this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them,  that  believe  not, 
lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel  of  Christ,  ii»/io  is  the  image 
of  God,  shoidd  shine  unto  them.  Hence  we  learn,  my  breth- 
ren, the  wholesome  but  unpalatable  lesson  of  the  goodness, 
yea,  even  of  the  mercy  of  God,  in  those  various  visitations  of 
his  Providence  whereby  he  blasts  our  fondest  earthly  hopes, 
strikes  away  our  worldly  props  and  defences,  and  thereby  admo- 
nishes us  to  place  our  dependence  on  a  more  secure  foundation, 
even  on  Him  whose  word  shall  endure  when  this  world  and  all 
its  glory  shall  be  dissolved  in  the  consuming  fire  of  the  second 
advent  of  him  who  once  came  to  save  and  will  again  come  to 
judge. 

But  what  demonstrates  more  fully  the  madness  of  this  pro- 
pensity and  leaves  its  entertainers  without  excuse,  is,  the  just  and 
obvious  conclusion  which  the  divine  wisdom  draws  from  such 
conduct.  God  having  put  forth  the  wonders  of  his  love  for  our 
recovery  from  sin  and  eternal  death,  and  invited  us  to  return  to 
his  favour  and  everlasting  life,  through  the  merits  and  death  of 
his  only  begotten  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  to  reject  the  gospel,  or, 
which  is  exactly  the  same  thing  in  effect,  to  excuse  ourselves 
from  its  requirements,  is  a  wilful  rejection  of  the  means  of  grace, 
and,  consequently,  of  salvation.  /  say  unto  you,  says  our  Lord, 
that  none  of  those  men  which  were  hidden  shall  taste  of  my  supper. 

I  know,  indeed,  that  it  is  not  the  deliberate  purpose  of  those 
who  thus  trifle  with  eternity  to  embrace  perdition ;  but  as  all 
are  bound  to  consider  impartially  the  grounds  and  arguments 
of  revealed  religion,  as  all  can  deduce  this  necessary  conse- 
quence from  the  nature  and  express  conditions  of  the  gospel ; 


OF  EXCUSES  AGAINST  RELIGION-  31 

and  as  reason  itself  is  competent  to  refute  the  most  specious 
excuses  on  so  tremendous  an  alternative  as  that  of  everlasting 
life  or  eternal  death,  put  to  the  choice  of  accountable  creatures  ; 
neglect  of  the  gospel  is  justly  considered  and  treated,  by  the 
Searcher  of  hearts,  as  the  deliberate  rejection  of  all  that  God 
hath  done  and  Christ  hath  suffered  for  the  salvation  of 
sinners. 

Now,  my  dear  hearers,  wherein  do  the  excuses  of  the  present 
day  differ,  either  in  their  letter  or  their  spirit,  from  those  detailed 
in  the  parable  1  And  wherefore  shall  not  the  same  measure 
be  meted  to  those  who  now  slight  the  invitation  of  the  gospel, 
as  to  those  persons  who  first  desired  to  be  excused  from  accept- 
ing it  ?  Yet  to  look  around  in  the  world,  and  consider  the 
number  and  description  of  persons  who  make  the  lawful  duties 
and  occupations  of  the  present  life  an  excuse  for  overlooking 
the  care  of  their  immortal  souls,  one  might  suppose  that  some 
alteration  had  taken  place  in  the  counsels  of  heaven ;  or,  that 
the  love  of  the  world  and  of  the  things  that  are  therein  had 
changed  its  character,  and  become  the  ready  way  to  obtain  the 
favour  of  God  and  the  rewards  of  the  life  to  come.  For  if  we 
consider  this  subject  with  the  care  it  deserves,  we  shall  perceive 
that  these  excuses  are  not  made  by  the  poor  and  profligate,  but 
by  the  more  decent,  orderly,  and  careful  sort  of  people,  by  the 
men  of  wealth  and  substance,  of  name  and  note — the  possessors 
of  farms  and  teams,  and  of  the  means  of  sensual  gratification. 
And  it  is  not  an  unreasonable  conclusion,  that  the  parable  was 
thus  framed  in  order  to  present  a  more  striking  warning  against 
this  powerful,  prominent,  and  destructive  propensity  of  our  fallen 
nature,— to  knock  at  the  door  of  their  hearts,  who  hear  the 
word  indeed,  but  suffer  it  to  be  choked  and  rendered  unfruitful 
by  the  thorns  and  briars  of  worldly  occupation  and  sensual 
delights.  To  show  the  wealthy  and  the  prosperous,  and  the 
busy  and  the  thoughtless,  where  their  danger  lies,  and  to  set 
their  calculations  at  work  upon  eternity. 

The  poor  and  the  profligate  have  their  excuses  also  against 
the  gospel ;  but  they  are  of  a  different  character,  and  are  equally 
provided  against  in  that  word  which  is  able  to  make  all  sorts  of 
sinners  wise  unto  salvation.     But  as  the  main  deceit  of  sin,  as 


32  THE  FOLLr  AND  WICKEDNESS 

the  most  present  and  powerful  delusion  of  the  devil,  the  love  of 
the  world,  including  the  pleasures  which  the  world  can  bestow, 
is  chiefly  dwelt  upon,  is  placed  in  the  front  of  our  common 
danger,  and  the  light  of  divine  truth  is  thrown  so  clear  and 
strong  upon  it,  as  to  render  excuse  inexcusable.  If  any  man 
love  the  xcorld  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  hi  him.  Ye  adulterers 
and  adulteresses,  knovj  ye  not  that  the  friendship  of  the  world  is 
enmity  with  God?  Whosoever,  therefore,  icill  he  a  friend  of  the 
world  is  the  enemy  of  God.  Yes,  indeed,  ye  know  it ;  but  ye 
beg  to  be  excused  from  taking  heed  either  to  the  warning  or 
the  invitation.  But  let  the  world  send  forth  its  invitations,  who, 
then,  returns  the  contemptuous  refusal  1  Alas  !  that  even  those 
who  profess  that  they  seek  a  better  country,  too  often  exercise 
their  ingenuity  in  fashioning  excuses,  and  are  found  sitting  at 
meat  in  the  idol's  temple.  And  what  is  the  result,  the  open 
unblushing  result,  in  this  Christian  land  1  Full  theatres,  over- 
flowing parties  of  pleasure,  and  empty  churches  ;  thousands 
squandered  on  folly,  fashion,  and  sin,  and  the  religion  of  the 
gospel,  the  science  of  salvation,  turned  over  to  the  meagre 
support  of  the  scraps  and  remnants  which  the  full-fed  world  can 
spare  from  the  table  of  its  delights.  O  truth,  where  is  thy 
force  ?  O  reason,  where  is  thy  power  1  O  conscience,  where  is 
thy  voice  1  O  shame,  where  is  thy  blush  1 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  show  the  unreasonableness  and  fallacy 
of  these  and  all  other  excuses  on  this  subject. 

This  you  may  say,  my  hearers,  is  needless — the  point  is  self- 
evident  ;  but  if  so,  then  surely  their  guilt  is  the  greater,  who 
thus  say  and  do  not.  If  ye  ivere  blind,  said  our  Lord  to  the 
Pharisees,  ye  should  have  no  sin ;  but  now  ye  say,  we  see,  there- 
fore, your  sin  remaineth.  Yet  as  we  know  from  experience, 
that  many  are  prejudiced  against  the  gospel  under  the  wide- 
spread delusion  that  a  profession  of  religion  is  incompatible 
with  the  business  of  the  world  ;  to  such  it  may  be  helpful,  while 
to  others  it  cannot  be  grievous,  to  show  how  utterly  unfounded 
the  notion  is,  and  thereby  manifest  more  clearly  the  folly  and 
sinfulness  of  every  objection  to  the  only  hope  man  is  possessed 
of  on  this  side  the  grave. 


OF  EXCUSES  AGAINST  RELIGION.  33 

Now  the  objection  itself  is  founded  on  an  erroneous  view 
both  of  religion  and  of  the  world.  Men  take  certain  things  for 
granted,  on  each  side,  and  thence  conclude,  without  sufficient 
examination,  that  there  is  no  point  of  agreement  between  their 
known  oppositions.  And  this,  itself,  is  sufficient  to  show  the 
unreasonableness  of  the  conclusion,  and  of  the  excuses  founded 
on  it ;  because  a  little  more  care  to  understand  what  religion 
really  is,  and  in  what  manner  its  supreme  obligations  bear  upon 
and  are  connected  with  the  present  life,  would  give  an  entirely 
different  view  of  the  subject ;  and  show,  beyond  dispute,  that  as 
the  religion  of  the  gospel  is  contrived  and  instituted  by  infinite 
wisdom,  for  man  in  this  world,  every  calling  and  occupation 
which  the  state  of  the  world  demands,  and  variety  of  condition 
calls  into  operation,  may  be  followed  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  in 
agreement  with  the  requirements  of  Christianity.  But  the 
objection  is  further  shown  to  be  unreasonable  from  this,  that  it 
never  springs  from  any  opposition  between  religion  and  the  fair 
and  honest  exercise  of  our  particular  .calling,  but  between 
religion  and  fraudulent,  injurious,  or  oppressive  conduct,  which 
would  bring  advantage  to  one,  to  the  loss  of  another  or  of 
many.  This  God  abhors  and  religion  condemns,  because  it  is 
iniquity ;  and,  therefore,  those  men  who  possess  the  disposition 
of  beasts  of  prey,  and  would  live  by  devouring  their  fellow 
creatures,  condemn  religion,  and  pray  to  be  excused  from  its 
duties.  For  religion  is  the  great  guardian  of  human  rights  and 
of  human  happiness ;  its  gracious  purpose  is,  peace  and  good  will 
on  earth,  the  alleviation  of  human  misery  by  the  fruits  of  kind- 
ness, compassion,  and  mercy,  and  to  perpetuate,  in  eternity, 
the  felicity  which  flows  from  the  exercise  of  mutual  love. 

Equally  unreasonable  is  the  objection  to  religion,  from  the 
unfounded  notion,  that  Christianity  is  inconsistent  with  the 
pleasures  and  enjoyments  of  life.  On  this  mistaken  but  prevail- 
ing notion  the  young  and  the  gay,  equally  with  the  dissolute 
and  the  profligate,  stand  back  from  the  due  consideration  of 
rehgion,  and  excuse  themselves  from  its  indispensable  obliga- 
tions. That  the  vicious  should  thus  act  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at ;  that  the  profligate  should  be  opposed  to  what  condemns 
their  course  of  life  is  to  be  expected  ;  but  that  those  who  can 

Vol.  II.— 5 


34  THE  FOLLY  AND  VVlCKEDNESsi 

neither  l;e  called  vicious  or  profligate,  further  than  by  seeking 
amusement  find  satisfaction  where  the  vicious  and  the  profligate 
are  too  surely  to  be  found,  should  thus  sacrifice  the  respect  due 
to  religion  and  themselves,  may  justly  excite  admiration  :  yet  so 
it  is,  and  every  assembly  for  what  is  called  public  amusement, 
is  proof  of  the  deplorable  bias  upon  the  mind  of  man,  to  find 
pleasure  in  the  dissipation  of  thought,  and  entertainment  from 
the  exhibition  of  human  depravity. 

Could  they,  however,  be  prevailed  upon  to  reflect — would 
they  but  give  the  claims  of  the  gospel  a  fair  and  unprejudiced 
healing — above  all,  would  they  but  make  the  experiment  of 
what  it  denies  and  what  it  grants,  to  those  who  embrace  it,  they 
would  learn,  that,  within  the  bounds  of  innocence,  religion  lays 
no  interdict  upon  enjoyment — her  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness, 
and  all  her  paths  are  peace.  Her  wise  and  wholesome  regula- 
tions guard  only  against  sin,  as  the  grand  enemy  of  all  true 
pleasure:  and,  as  sin  makes  its  insidious  approaches  chiefly 
under  the  mask  of  profit  and  enjoyment,  religion  calls  upon  her 
votaries  to  be  on  their  guard  against  these  too  seductive  evils  ;  to 
weigh  their  tendency  as  respects  the  great  purpose  of  the  present 
life  in  preparing  for  another ;  and,  according  as  the  welfare  of 
eternity  will  be  effected,  to  follow  or  renounce  them.  Yet  what 
numbers,  nevertheless,  desire  to  be  excused  from  the  reasonable 
service,  which  their  duty  to  God  and  to  their  own  souls,  their 
comfort  here  and  their  happiness  hereafter,  requires.  How 
many,  who  would  start  with  aff'right  from  what  is  directly  sinful, 
under  the  spell  of  this  delusion  feel  neither  the  disgrace  of 
being  companions  of  the  vicious,  the  unreasonableness  of  such 
unprofitable  waste  of  time,  or  the  deadly  sin  of  closing  their 
ears  and  hardening  their  hearts  against  the  invitations  of  the 
gospel.  Yet  even  the  youngest  must  know  that  a  time  will 
come  when  consolation  will  be  sought,  when  an  approaching 
change  of  being  will  prompt  questions  to  the  soul,  which  the 
world  cannot  answer  ;  when  neither  its  profits  nor  its  pleasures 
can  give  ease  to  a  wounded  spirit,  or  assuage  the  anguish  of 
remorse  ;  and  when  all  that  is  contained  within  the  circle  of  its 
power  would  be  surrendered  for  that  peace  which  religion 
confers  on  the  dying  bed  of  the  Christian.     Carry  forward  your 


OF  EXCUSES   AGAINST  RELIGION,  35 

thoughts,  then,  my  hearers,  to  that  moment  which  none  can 
escape  ;  hring  the  excuses,  under  which  you  are  hlinding 
yourselves  against  the  light  to  this  test ;  and,  if  they  will  not 
serve  you  then,  be  ye  as  sure  as  truth  can  make  it,  that  they 
are  now  no  other  than  a  worthless  fallacy — a  deceit  of  sin — a 
snare  of  the  devil,  from  which  you  cannot  too  speedily  rescue 
your  souls.  Clear,  however,  as  this  must  be  to  all,  it  will  be 
still  more  apparent  if  we  consider,  as  was  proposed, 

III.  In  the  third  place,  what  it  is,  that  we  desire  to  be  excused 
from. 

And  what  is  it,  my  dear  friends,  that  so  many  of  you  seem 
not  only  opposed  to,  but  even  afraid  of?  Alas  !  that  so  few 
permit  their  thoughts  to  dwell  upon  the  purpose  of  religion — 
the  gracious  purpose  of  God's  love  to  rescue  immortal  souls 
from  the  power  of  sin  and  eternal  death,  and  prepare  them, 
by  the  renewal  and  sanctification  of  their  natures,  for  everlast- 
ing life  and  endless  felicity,  in  his  heavenly  kingdom.  It  is 
heaven,  then,  with  all  its  glories ;  it  is  God  with  all  his  perfec- 
tions ;  it  is  Christ  and  his  unspeakable  love  that  you  beg  to 
be  excused  from,  for  these  are  no  otherwise  to  be  attained  than 
by  the  grace  of  the  gospel ;  nor  can  that  grace  be  obtained 
otherwise  than  by  coming  to  Christ  in  the  open  profession  and 
practice  of  his  religion.  And  can  many  words  be  necessary  to 
convince  you  of  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  such  excuses  ? 
God  forbid.  For  how  shall  we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great 
salvation  ?  Yet  this  is  not  all  that  is  involved  in  making  light 
of  the  invitations  of  the  gospel.  You  do  not  only  hereby  reject 
heaven,  but  you  prefer  hell ;  you  do  not  only  refuse  salvation, 
but  you  choose  perdition;  you  do  not  only  turn  away  from 
holiness,  but  you  embrace  sin ;  you  do  not  only  deny  your  Saviour, 
but  you  trample  on  his  blood,  and  choose  your  betrayer  for  your 
king — for  there  is  no  alternative  between  being  saved  or  lost — 
no  middle  ground  between  heaven  and  hell ;  nor  is  there  any 
Saviour  but  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified. 

To  this  awful  condition  will  these  excuses,  if  persisted  in, 
bring  all  who  now  resort  to  them  ;  and  if  this  is  as  sure  as  the 
truth  of  God,  there  can  be  but  one  application  for  all  to  make  of 
what  has  been   said.      Cast  away,  then,    these  refua:es  of  lies, 


36  THE    FOLLY    AND    AVICKEDNESS,   &,C. 

receive  with  meekness  the  engrafted  word,  which  is  able  to  save  your 
souls  ;  and  now,  even  to-day,  if  you  will  hear  his  voice  harden  not 
your  hearts,  but  come  to  that  mercy  and  love  which  God  hath 
provided,  through  his  only  begotten  Son,  for  penitent  sinners. 
Delay  not  till  to-morrow,  but  now,  while  conscience  is  awaken- 
ed, hearken  to  the  Spirit  of  God  in  his  gracious  convictions, 
follow  the  admonitions  of  his  saving  wisdom,  and  reap  the 
blessed  fruit  of  that  peace  which  the  world  cannot  give,  which  it 
cannot  take  away,  and  which  shall  endure  for  even 


SERMON  IV. 


FAITH     IN     GOD. 


Hebrews  xi.  G. 


"  But  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  Him ;  for  he  that  cometh  to  God  must 
believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  the  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  liim." 

The  parable  of  the  house  built  upon  the  rock  and  that  built 
upon  the  sand  sets  before  us,  in  a  very  instructive  manner,  my 
brethren,  the  necessity,  as  well  as  advantage,  of  looking  well  to 
the  foundation  on  which  we  construct  our  scheme  of  present 
and  future  happiness.  As  rational  beings  there  must  be  some 
governing  principle  by  which  the  tenour  of  our  lives  and  con- 
versation is  directed,  some  main  object  of  pursuit  to  which  all 
others  are  subordinate,  and  by  which  our  true  character  is 
determined. 

To  act  without  a  motive  is  hardly  possible,  and  though  this 
motive  may  not  at  all  times  be  equally  well  defined  even  to  our 
own  consciousness,  yet  it  surely  exists,  and  possesses  this  most 
important  quality,  that  it  gives  to  our  actions  their  intrinsic 
value.  As  accountable  beings  this  principle  has  a  wide  range  ; 
and  in  its  application  to  our  individual  condition,  opens  a  field  of 
deep  and  extensive  self-examination.  If  it  is  the  condition  of 
our  being  that  there  is  no  indiiferency  in  our  actions,  if  the 
whole  of  our  conduct  in  the  present  life  has  its  bearing  upon  the 
life  that,  is  to  come,  and  if  the  motive  or  intention  gives  to  our 
actions  the  moral  quality  of  good  or  evil,  in  the  sight  of  God,  the 
principle  on  which  we  act  should  be  well  considered,  carefully 
selected,  and  well  followed. 

That  this  doctrine  is  particularly  applicable  to  the  commence- 
ment and  progress  of  religion  in  the  soul,  is  set  forth  in  many 
passages  of  Scripture,  but  in  none  more  directly  than  in  the 
words  of  my  text  ;  in  which  the  apostle  lays  it  down  in  the 
most  express  terms,  that  we  can  only  be  acceptable  to  God,  in 


38  FAITH    IN    GOD, 

SO  far  as  it  is  our  real  intention  to  please  him  ;  and  that  this  in- 
tention can  only  spring  from  such  a  firm  belief  in  his  being  and 
attributes,  discoverable  in  his  works,  and  confirmed  by  revela- 
tion, as  leads  us  to  reverence,  love,  and  serve  him. 

In  discoursing  on  this  passage  of  Scripture,  my  object  will  be 
to  enforce  this  leading  principle  of  all  religion.  I  shall,  there- 
fore, endeavour,  in  the 

First  place,  to  show  you  what  that  faith  is,  without  which  it 
is  impossible  to  please  God. 

Secondly,  why  it  is  impossible  without  it  to  please  him. 

Thirdly,  I  shall  inquire  what  is  meant  by  coming  to  .God. 

Fourthly,  how  we,  under  the  gospel,  are  to  come  to  him. 

Fifthly  and  Lastly,  I  shall  make  an  application  of  the 
subject  : 

But  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  him  ;  for  he  that 
Cometh  fo  God  must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  the  rewarder 
of  them  that  diligently  seek  him. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  show  you  what  that  faith  is  without  which 
it  is  impossible  to  please  God. 

Perhaps,  my  hearers,  no  single  word  or  doctrine  has  been 
the  subject  of  such  various  and  conflicting  opinion  as  faith  ;  nor 
ought  we  much  to  wonder  at  it,  when  we  consider  what  pre- 
cious promises  and  infinite  consequences  are  annexed  to  the 
entertainment  of  what  the  word  really  means. 

That  present  acceptance  with  God  and  eternal  fife  in  the 
world  to  come  are  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures  as  dependent  on  the 
sincerity,  purity,  and  constancy  of  our  faith,  is  evident  beyond 
dispute.  That  the  power  of  working  miracles,  and  of  receiving 
benefit  from  miraculous  power  in  others,  was  according  to  the 
faith  of  the  parties,  is  equally  certain,  as  it  also  is  that  the  want 
of  faith  is  always  considered  as  a  criminal  defect.  Hence  it  has 
come  to  pass,  that  weak  and  heated  minds,  losing  sight  of  the 
true  Scripture  meaning  of  the  word,  have  transferred  it  to  as 
many  and  as  various  shades  of  befief  as  are  to  be  found  betwixt 
the  genuine  fruit  of  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Antinomian  de- 
lusion of  a  dead  and  barren  credulity. 

But  we  might  reasonably  expect,  I  think,  what  was  so  vitally 
important  to  our  religious  advancement — that  a  duty  to  which  we 


FAITH  IN  GOD.  39 

are  so  frequently  and  earnestly  exhorted  in  tlie  Scriptures,  would 
not  be  rendered  ineffectual,  by  the  obscuiity  and  uncertainty 
with  which  its  nature  and  object  was  declared  and  explained. 
And  had  the  plain  words  of  Scripture,  in  their  obvious 
meaning-,  been  duly  attended  to,  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  unsound, 
enthusiastic,  and  corrupt  notions  of  this  doctrine,  entertained  in 
the  world,  would  have  died  away  with  the  inventors.  This  I 
trust  to  make  manifest  to  all  present,  from  the  explanation 
given  of  it  by  the  apostle  in  the  chapter  from  which  my  text  is 
taken. 

Faith,  says  the  apostle,  in  the  first  verse  of  this  chapter,  is  the 
substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen. 
The  word  translated  substance,  means,  in  the  original,  the  firm 
and  assured  expectation  of  things  hoped  for,  such  a  substantial 
reliance  on  what  revelation  makes  known  and  reason  confirms, 
as  rules  the  life.  What  those  things  are,  which  not  being 
evident  to  sense  are  yet  made  manifest  by  faith,  he  declares  in 
the  w^ords  of  my  text.  They  are,  saith  he,  the  being  of  God 
and  the  rewards  of  the  life  to  come.  He  that  cometh  to  God, 
must  believe  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  the  rewarder  of  them  that 
diligently  seek  him.  Faith,  therefore,  is  that  firm  belief  of 
things  at  present  not  seen  ;  that  conviction  upon  the  mind  of 
the  truth  of  the  promises  and  threatenings  of  God,  made  known 
in  the  gospel ;  of  the  certain  reality  of  the  rewards  and  punish- 
ments of  the  life  to  come,  which  enables  a  man,  in  opposition 
to  all  the  temptations  of  a  corrupt  nature  and  sinful  world,  to 
obey  God,  in  expectation  of  an  invisible  reward  hereafter. 
This  is  that  faith  which,  in  Scripture,  is  always  represented  as 
a  moral  virtue — indeed,  as  the  principal  moral  virtue,  and  the 
living  root  of  all  other  virtues ;  because  it  is  an  act,  not  of  the 
understanding  only,  but  also  and  chiefly  of  the  will,  so  to  consider 
impartially — so  to  approve  and  embrace  the  doctrine  of  the 
gospel,  as  to  make  it  the  great  rule  of  our  lives  and  actions. 
With  this  meaning  of  the  word  faith  all  the  examples  of  its 
influence  and  effect,  set  forth  in  this  chapter,  agree. 

The  faith  of  Abraham  was,  that  he  beheved  God,  not  only  in 
the  promises  which  were  special  and  personal  to  himself,  but  in 
those  also  which  apply  equally  to  all  mankind. — He  looked  for  a 


40  FAITH  IN  GOD. 

city  which  hath  foundations,  even  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  spoken 
of  in  the  prophecies,  tvhose  builder  and  maker  is  God.  The  faith 
of  the  other  patriarchs  was,  that  confessing  themselves  strangers 
and  pilgrims  on  the  earth,  they  declared  plainly  that  they  sought  a 
better  country,  that  is  an  heavenly.  The  faith  of  Moses  was,  that 
he  chose  rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God,  than  to 
enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season;  for  he  had  respect  unto  the 
recompense  of  reward,  and  endured  as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible. 
The  faith  of  the  martyrs  was,  that  they  loere  tortured,  not  accepting 
deliverance,  that  thexj  might  obtain  a  better  resurrection. 

Now,  my  hearers,  is  not  this  a  most  plain  and  intelligible 
notion  of  faith,  is  there  any  thing  in  it  to  puzzle  or  offend  the 
understanding  1  And  may  not  we,  as  well  as  these  Old  Testa- 
ment worthies,  give  the  most  full  and  fixed  belief  to  the  truth  of 
God  1  Yea,  may  we  not,  even  in  a  higher  sense  than  they  could 
do  it,  realize  the  invisible  but  revealed  things  of  God  ;  for  they 
saw  the  promises  only  obscurely  and  afar  off,  while  we  live 
under  their  fulfilment.  The  same  God — the  same  world  of  his 
workmanship — the  same  providence  of  his  government,  which 
they  had,  we  have.  While  in  the  proofs  of  his  faithfulness  and 
love,  his  tender  mercy  and  compassion,  in  the  knowledge  of  his 
holy  will,  and  in  the  clear  discoveries  of  a  future  state,  we  as  far 
exceed  them  as  the  certainty  of  knowledge  exceeds  the  dubious 
conjectures  of  ignorance.  And  yet,  by  confounding  this  plain 
and  practical  meaning  of  the  word  faith  with  the  oftentimes 
unintelligible  doctrines  of  men,  its  power  and  influence  over  the 
life  and  conversation  of  Christians  comes  far  short  of  their 
bright  example  ;  although  we  are  fully  assured,  that  unto  whom 
much  is  given,  of  the  same  shall  much  be  required. 

But  while  this  is  undeniably  the  principal  and  most  important 
sense  of  the  word  faith,  yet  it  is  not  the  only  sense  in  which  it 
is  used  in  Scripture.  Sometimes  it  signifies  that  peculiar  trust 
and  confidence  in  the  power  of  God,  to  which,  in  the  apostles' 
times,  was  annexed  the  gift  of  working  miracles  ;  and  as  it  was 
an  extraordinary  effect  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  was  required  only 
of  those  upon  whom  it  was  conferred.  In  other  places  the 
word  faith  is  used  to  denote  faithfulness  to  any  trust  reposed  in 
men.     Thus,  in  our  Lord's  charge  against  the  Pharisees — ye 


FAITH  IN  GOD.  41 

have  omitted  the  weightier  matters  of  the  late,  judgmenty  mercy,  and 
faith.  Another  and  much  more  usual  signification  of  the  word 
faith,  is,  to  denote  the  whole  gospel  of  Christ,  in  opposition  to 
the  ritual  works  of  the  law  given  by  Moses,  to  distinguish  the 
Christian  from  the  Jewish  religion.  Thus  we  read,  the  number 
of  the  disciples  muUvplied  in  Jerusalem  greatly,  and  a  great 
company  of  the  priests  were  obedient  to  the  faith,  that  is,  embraced 
the  gospel.  Again,  a  man  is  justified  by  faith,  without  the  deeds 
of  the  law ;  that  is,  by  the  conditions  of  the  gospel.  We  are, 
indeed,  justified  by  faith  only — by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  the 
propitiation  and  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  By 
this  faith,  however,  we  are  not  to  understand  a  mere  confident 
reliance  on  the  merits  of  Christ,  to  do  that  for  us  which  he 
expressly  requires  we  should  do  for  ourselves,  through  his  grace 
enabling  us ;  but  a  thankful  reception  of  him  as  revealed  in  the 
gospel,  with  a  faithful  observance  of  the  commands  and  example 
he  hath  left  us.  This,  indeed,  is  the  most  general  meaning  of 
the  word  throughout  the  writings  of  the  apostles ;  and  the 
reason  why  the  whole  gospel  is  so  often  expressed  by  the  word 
faith,  is,  because  the  great  motives  and  promises  of  the  gospel 
are  the  invisible  things  of  a  future  state,  which  can  be  discerned 
by  faith  only.  But  with  whatever  variety  of  meaning  and 
application  the  word  may  be  used  in  the  New  Testament,  of 
whic«h  a  careful  consideration  of  the  context  will  inform  us,  the 
most  general  and  practically  useful  meaning  of  the  word  is,  in 
its  plain,  literal,  and  most  natural  sense,  a  rational  persuasion 
and  firm  belief  of  the  being  of  God,  of  the  truth  of  his  promises 
made  to  us  in  and  by  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the  rewards 
and  punishments  of  the  life  to  come.  By  this  to  govern  and  direct 
our  lives  is  to  dig  deep,  and  build  upon  a  rock  that  cannot  be 
moved  ;  while  any  and  every  other  dependance  will  prove  but 
shifting  sand  before  the  sweeping  storm  of  his  righteous 
judgment.     For  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  God. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  show  you  why  it  is  impossible  without 
faith  to  please  God. 

The  short  and  simple  reason  why  it  is  so,  is  this,  that  what 
is  done  without  a  motive,  purpose  or  intention,  in  a  moral  sense, 
is  not  done  at  all,  and  is  no  more  capable  of  praise  or  reward. 

Vol.  II.— 6 


42  FAITH  IN  GOD. 

or  of  pleasing  the  unclonded  intelligence  of  the  great  Moral 
Governor  of  the  universe,  than  the  casual  motions  of  hfeless 
matter.     The  apostle  does  not  mean  to  say,  that  virtue  or  right- 
eousness can,  under  any  circumstances,  he  displeasing  to  God, 
or  require  to  be  spiced  and  seasoned  with  any  addition,  to  meet 
his  favour ;  but  he  means  to  assert  and  enforce  the  great  govern- 
ing principle    of  religion,    that  without   a  right  motive  there 
cannot  be  a  right  action,  and  without  faith  in  God  no  possible 
motive  to  serve  him.     Was  this  attended  to  as  it  ought  to  be, 
there  never  could  have  been  any  room  for  the  senseless  disputes 
about  the  value  of  faith  without  works,  and  works  without  faith, 
which  have  occupied  so  much  time  and  thought  that  might  have 
been  better  employed.     For  the  truth  is,  neither  is  of  any  value 
without  the  other,  it  being  the  union  of  a  proper  motive  with 
a  right  action  which  alone  causes  it  to  be  good  and  pleasing  to 
God.     Now,  let  us  ask  ourselves,  my   brethren  and  hearers, 
what  principle  can  be  devised  equally  reasonable,  comprehen- 
sive, and  effectual  in  its  application  to  moral  agents,  with  the 
one  required  by  my  text  ?     Who  can  consider  himself  as  the 
creature  and  servant  of  God  until  he  believes  that  there  is  a 
God,  or  who  can  set  himself  to  act  with  a  view  to  the  favour 
of  a  being  whose  existence  he  does  not  realise  1     The  idea  is 
absurd,  and  though  millions  under  the  light  of  the  gospel  are  in 
this  predicament,  owning  with  their  lips  that  there  is  a  God, 
(though  the  awful  fact  has  never  influenced  a  single  action  of 
their  lives,)  yet  the  truth  of  the  argument  is  not  in  the  least 
shaken  thereby,  but  strengthened,  and  the  principle  itself  illus- 
trated, for  to  such  persons   there  might  as  well  be  no   God. 
Until  this  belief  is  fixed  in  the  mind  we  continue,  in  fact,  athe- 
ists, and  how  an  atheist  can  possibly  please  God  has  yet  to  be 
found  out  by  the  liberal  free-thinkers  of  the  age  ;  as  it  also  has 
to  be  determined  by  those  who  make  light  of  the  doctrine  of 
faith,  and  rest  upon  the  morality  of  their  lives,  how  an  action 
which,  neither  ^in  its  elements  or  performance,  is  originated  or 
influenced  by  a  regard  to  God  and  a  future  state,  can  be  pleas- 
ing to  him  or  rewarded  by  him. 

But  there  is  yet  another  ground  on  which  to  show   why 
without  this  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  God. 


FAITH  IN  GOD.  43 

The  rational  being  who  can  contemplate  Him  in  the  wonders 
of  creation,  who  lives  by  his  bounty,  and  is  protected  and  pre- 
served by  his  providence,  and  is  not  thereby  led-to  discern  his 
eternal  power  and  godhead,  to  fear,  reverence,  worship,  and 
serve  him,  discovers  such  a  total  disregard  to  the  blessing  of  a 
rational  nature,  such  a  cold  ungrateful  temper,  as  not  only  to 
be  displeasing  to  his  Maker  and  Benefactor,  but  worthy  to  be 
delivered  to  the  vile  affections  of  a  corrupt  heart  to  work  all 
uncleanness  with  greediness.  And  if  this  be  true  as  respects 
the  Heathen,  how  much  more  as  respects  those  who  are  favoured 
with  the  contemplation  of  Him  in  the  wonders  of  redemp- 
tion, and  are  not  drawn  by  the  God  of  nature  and  of  all  grace 
to  love  him  with  all  the  heart  and  soul  and  strength.  Can  the 
creature  who  is  not  drawn  by  such  cords  of  love  to  believe, 
trust,  and  serve  his  God  and  Saviour,  have  in  him  a  single 
quahty  on  which  infinite  purity  and  holiness  can  look  with  accept- 
ance 1  Impossible,  my  friends,  from  the  nature  of  man  and 
from  the  nature  of  God. 

HI.   Thirdly,  I  am  to  inquire  what  is  meant  by  coming  to  God. 

By  coming  to  God,  we  are  to  understand  the  commencement 
of  a  religious  life,  the  undertaking  to  live  here  in  obedience  to 
God's  commands,  and  in  expectation  of  his  approbation  here- 
after. While  it  is  too  evident  to  require  proof,  that  he  who  thus 
acts  must,  according  to  the  text,  first  believe  that  God  is,  and 
that  he  is  both  able  and  willing  to  reward  him,  it  is  not 
unworthy  of  remark,  that  the  expression  itself  denotes  a  change 
or  alteration  in  the  direction  of  our  course.  By  nature  we  are 
all,  unhappily,  distant  from  and  opposed  to  God.  And  it  is  only 
by  serious  reflection,  produced  and  aided  by  divine  grace,  that 
we  are  brought  to  see  the  danger  of  such  a  state,  and  to  seek 
for  help  and  deliverance  from  it.  To  come  to  God,  then,  is  so 
to  consider  the  proofs  we  are  furnished  with  of  his  being  and 
attributes,  in  his  works  and  in  his  word,  as  heartily  to  embrace 
this  first  foundation  of  all  religion,  so  to  weigh  the  arguments 
and  motives  of  religion  as  to  be  convinced  that  God  is  our  chief 
good,  and  so  to  obey  liis  laws  as  to  ensure  his  present  favour, 
and  the  future  rewards  he  hath  promised  for  our  encouragement 
in  his  service. 


44 


FAITH    IN    GOD. 


Religion,  my  friends,  under  every  dispensation,  is  a  reason- 
able service,  and  can  neither  be  begun  nor  continued  to  any 
j)rofitable  results  without  the  exercise  of  our  understandings 
and  the  deliberate  choice  of  our  wills.  An  impulse  upon  our 
feelings  may  start  us  to  run  the  race,  but  it  will  not  carry  us  far, 
nor  yet  safe,  in  the  conflicts  we  have  to  engage  in  with  a  rebel- 
lious nature  and  a  corrupt  world.  These  can  only  be  overcome 
by  that  faith  which  is  firmly  and  understandingly  fixed  on  the 
primary  truth,  that  God  is,  and  that  he  is  the  rewarder  of  them  that 
diligently  seek  him.  Until  this  foundation  is  laid  no  progress 
can  be  made ;  and  exactly  according  to  the  strength  or  weak- 
ness of  the  impression — according  as  it  is  a  serious  and  affecting 
persuasion  of  the  heart,  or  a  mere  speculative  act  of  the  mind, 
will  the  effect  be.  Hence  we  are  able  to  account  for  the 
affecting  circumstance,  that  among  the  numbers  who  are  blessed 
with  all  the  helps  which  instruction  and  example  can  give,  to 
enforce  this  truth,  so  few,  nevertheless,  come  to  God  ;  and  why, 
among  those  who  do  come  outwardly,  such  coldness,  languor, 
and  deadness  is  found.  To  enjoy  the  comforts  and  consolations 
of  religion  we  must  be  hearty  in  the  cause,  as  those  who  firmly 
believe,  that  verily  there  is  a  reward  for  the  righteous,  verily  there 
is  a  God  that  judgeth  in  the  earth. 

IV.  Fourthly,  I  am  to  show  you  how  we,  under  the  gospel, 
are  to  come  to  him. 

By  the  wise  and  merciful  appointment  of  God,  in  the  salvation 
of  sinners,  the  means  have  always  been,  the  same,  and  the 
different  degrees  of  light  have  attended  different  dispensations  of 
his  grace ;  yet  faith  in  his  promises  has  been,  in  all,  the  simple 
and  universal  condition  on  which  his  favour  and  help  could  be 
obtained.  From  righteous  Abel  to  the  present  moment,  salva- 
tion has  been  by  grace  through  faith,  and  faith  has  universally 
shown  itself  by  obedience  to  the  commands  of  God.  When 
Cain  and  Abel  came  to  God,  the  one  offered  a  more  excellent 
sacrifice  than  the  other  ;  and  we  read  that  he  offered  it  thus  by 
faith ;  and  his  faith,  we  learn  from  the  circumstances,  consist- 
ed not  merely  in  the  frame  of  his  spirit,  in  the  devout  temper 
with  which  the  act  was  performed,  but  in  discerning  the  purpose 
of  the  appointment,  and  obeying  the  command  of  God,  with  his 


FAITH    IN    GOD.  45 

iiaith  fixed  on  that  great  and  effectual  sin-offering  which  the  first- 
ling of  his  flock  prefigured.  Cain  offered  as  well  as  Abel,  and  had 
the  same  means  of  understanding  what  was  meant  as  his  brother ; 
but  he  lacked  faith,  he  did  not  submit  himself  to  the  righteousness 
of  God— he,  therefore,  failed.  This  is  what  constituted  the 
difference  between  them,  and  this  only.  For  no  possible  reason 
can  be  given  why  a  lamb  should  be  more  acceptable  to  God,  in 
an  act  of  sacrificial  worship,  than  a  sheaf  of  corn,  unless  by  the 
express  appointment  of  Him  who  is  excellent  in  knowledge  and 
wonderful  in  counsel,  and  by  its  connexion  with  or  relation  to 
the  great  procuring  cause  of  any  acceptable  worship  from 
sinners. 

Let  us  carry  out  this  analogy,  then,  my  hearers,  to  illustrate 
this  head  of  our  discourse,  and  it  will  show  us  how  we,  under 
the  gospel,   must  come  to  God  ;    and  it  will  warn  us  emphati- 
cally, if  we  rightly  consider  it,   that  other  foundation  can  no  man 
lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ  ;  it  will  caution  us 
against  going  in  the  xoay  of  Cain,  and  hewing  out  to  ourselves 
broken  cisterns  which  can  hold  no  water;  it  will  teach  us  that 
faith  is  not  always  what  a  man  may  feel  fully  persuaded  of,  or 
that  that  is  right  which  we  happen  to  think  so.     No,  faith  has 
its  rule  as  well  as  its  reward ;  and  that  rule  is,   thus  saith 
THE  Lord.     The  profane  despiser  of  revelation  may  think  to 
come  to  God  in  the  way  of  natural  religion,  and,  with  the  corn 
sheaf  of  his  own  righteousness  in  his  hand,  look  for  acceptance. 
But,  no,  says  the  Lord  from  heaven,  no  man  cometh  unto  the 
Father  but  by  me ;  without  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission. 
The  careless  neglecter  of  God's  blessed  word,  may  speak  peace 
to  himself  in  the  knowledge  of  the  general  mercy  proclaimed  in 
the  gospel  by  Jesus  Christ.     But,  no,  says  the  living  word 
that  came  down  from  heaven,  if  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He,  ye 
shall  die  in  your  sins.    He  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already. 
And  the  non-professor,  who  is  ashamed  of  the  gospel,  and  keeps 
himself  from  any  outward   and  open  acknowledgment  of  God 
and  religion,  trusting  that  he  is  sincere  and  honest  in  the  way 
that  he  comes  to  God,  will  find,  when  it  is  too  late,  that  he  leans 
upon  a  broken  reed.    Whosoever  shall  be  ashamed  of  me  and  of  my 
words  in  this  adulterous  and  sinful  generation,  of  him  also  shall 


46  FAITH    IN    GOD. 

the  iion  oj  Mmi  he  ashamed,  when  he  comcth  in  the  glory  of  his 
Father  with  the  holy  angels.  Whosoever  shall  deny  me  before 
men,  him  will  I  also  deny  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven, 
[never  knew  you,  depart  from  me  'ye  workers  of  iniquity.  And  to 
every  shade  and  variety  of  unbelief  which  the  evil  heart  of  man 
would  mark  out  for  a  way  of  salvation,  it  is  now  said,  and  in 
that  great  day  it  will  again  be  said,  there  is  none  other  name  under 
heaven  given  amongst  men  {^hereby  toe  must  be  saved  only  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  J^azareth.  He  is  the  great  sin-offering  to 
which  Abel  looked,  by  faith,  and  was  accepted,  and  which  Cain 
refused  and  was  rejected.  By  faith  in  him,  whom  all  their 
sacrifices  represented,  did  the  saints  of  God  before  the  flood, 
Seth,  Enoch,  Noah,  come  to  him.  By  faith  Abraham  saw  his 
day  and  was  glad ;  and  though  they  saw  the  promises  afar  off, 
yet  knowing  that  he  is  faithful  that  promised,  they  committed 
their  souls  to  him  in  well  doing,  as  unto  a  faithful  Creator,  and 
received  the  end  of  their  faith,  even  the  salvation  of  their  souls. 
And  thus  must  it  be  with  us  under  the  gospel,  my  hearers. 
What  they  saw  afar  off  and  promised,  we  contemplate  as  near 
at  hand  and  fulfilled — what  was  obscurely  shadowed  out  to 
them  by  a  city  which  hath  foundations,  we  behold  in  the  clear 
discoveries  of  a  future  state,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the 
general  judgment,  and  the  rewards  and  punishments  of  eternity. 
We  must  come  to  God  as  he  hath  appointed  for  us.  This  is 
my  beloved  Son,  hear  ye  Him.  For  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  lohosoever  believeth  in  him 
should  not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life.  Hear,  then,  my 
fellow  sinners,  the  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  which  Christ 
the  Lord  proclaims  to  a  lost  world  :  Come  unto  me  all 
ye  that  are  weary  and  heavy  laden  and  I  will  give  you  rest. 
Ye  believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  me.  I  am  the  resurrection  and 
the  life,  he  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  ivere  dead  yet  shall  he  live, 
and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth  in  me  shall  never  die.  And 
come  unto  God  by  him,  confessing  his  name  before  the  world, 
as  your  atonement,  wisdom,  righteousness,  and  redemption,  pro- 
fessing his  holy  religion,  and  obeying  his  holy  laws  ;  then  shall 
you  realise  that  to  this  faith  all  things  are  possible,  and  receiv- 
ing grace  to  overcome  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil,  sit 
down  vs'lth  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  in  the  kingdom  of  God, 


FAITH    IN    GOD.  47 

Lastly,  to  apply  what  has  been  said. 

The  proof  of  the  being  of  God  is  so  plain  and  manifest  from 
his  works,  as  to  lie  level  with  every  capacity.  The  more  these 
are  studied,  to  be  sure,  and  the  deeper  we  search  into  the  wis- 
dom, power,  and  goodness  which  contrived  and  maintains  them 
all  in  harmonious  dependence  on  his  infinite  will,  the  stronger 
does  the  proof  become,  and  the  more  glorious  He,  loho  in 
toisdom  hath  made  them  all.  But  herein  the  most  enlightened 
philosopher  hath  nothing  more  certain  to  depend  upon  than  the 
plainest  understanding,  for  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God, 
and  the  firmament  showeth  his  handy  work.  That  there  should, 
therefore,  be  really  and  truly  such  a  thing  as  an  atheist  is  next 
to  impossible  ;  but  that  there  are  multitudes  who  live  without 
God  in  the  world,  and  are,  consequently,  practically  atheists,  is 
unhappily  too  susceptible  of  proof.  Of  this  description  are  all 
those  persons  who  give  neither  time  or  thought  to  the  consider- 
ation of  religion,  or  who  content  themselves  with  such  a  super- 
ficial view  of  the  subject  as  makes  no  impression  upon  the  heart 
and  life.  To  such  I  would  first  address  myself,  and  beg 
and  intreat  them  to  consider  how  every  way  deplorable  and 
ruinous  their  condition  is.  Experience  tells  you,  my  friends, 
that  this  world  passes  away  and  the  things  that  ar^  in  it,  that 
but  a  little  while,  and  how  soon  you  know  not,  eternity  will 
receive  you.  My  text  tells  you,  and  your  own  consciences  tell 
you,  that  preparation  must  be  made  for  it  under  the  penalty  of 
everlasting  perdition.  Now,  the  question  is,  ought  a  rational 
being  to  risk  the  bare  possibility  of  such  a  state  upon  any  thing 
short  of  demonstration  that  there  is  no  God  1  What  name, 
then,  can  be  given  to  those  who,  in  the  very  teeth  of  a  testi- 
mony as  wide  as  the  universe,  in  opposition  to  the  witness  of 
heaven  and  earth,  of  angels  and  men,  and  of  personal  con- 
sciousness, hold  themselves  back  from  comfort  in  time  and 
reward  in  eternity  on  the  terms  of  the  gospel.  Who  with  the 
gospel  in  their  hands,  the  invitations  of  heaven's  mercy  sound- 
ing in  their  ears,  and  echoed  back  from  their  hearts  in  the  want 
and  misery  of  our  ruined  nature,  yet  resist  it  all,  and  force  a 
God  of  love  to  reject  them  and  consign  them  to  the  darkness 
they  have  chosen.     O  bethink  you,  while  it  is  yet  time.     Look 


48  FAITH    IN    GOD. 

to  the  heavens  above  and  to  the  earth  beneath  and  behold  the 
God  that  made  them.  Ponder  the  frame  of  your  own  spirit, 
and  see  there,  though  in  ruins,  the  image  of  God.  Open  the 
book  of  his  message  to  his  creatures,  there  learn  his  holy  and 
righteous  will,  the  wonders  of  his  love,  and  the  terrors  of  his 
vengeance,  and  come,  even  now,  at  the  eleventh  hour,  come  to 
the  God  of  all  grace,  by  faith  in  his  only  begotten  Son,  who  this 
day  assures  you,  by  me,  his  poor  servant  and  minister,  that  he 
that  Cometh  unto  him  he  will  in  no  loise  cast  out. 

To  sincere  behevers  the  application  of  what  has  been  said, 
is  the  confirmation  of  the  faith  which  they  have.  To  be  assured 
that  there  is  a  God  over  all,  mighty  in  power,  infinite  in  mercy, 
and  glorious  in  holiness,  who  is  watchful  for  their  good,  and 
without  whose  permission  no  evil  can  befall  them,  sheds  over 
the  wilderness  of  this  poor  world  the  light  and  comfort  which 
renders  the  sorrows,  sufferings,  and  disappointments  it  is  filled 
with,  bearable  and  profitable.  Take  it  from  us,  my  brethren, 
(though,  thanks  be  to  God,  it  is  impossible  to  take  it  from  us,) 
and  whither  could  we  turn  for  hope  or  patience  1  We  know 
that  our  humble  love  and  sincere  though  imperfect  service 
will  meet  with  an  eternal  reward  ;  that  though  every  way 
unworthy  of  it,  yet,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  an  inhe- 
ritance, incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away,  is 
laid  up  in  heaven  for  us.  Who,  dear  brethren,  shall  be  able  to 
separate  us  from  this  precious  hope  1  Shall  unbelief,  with  its 
dark  and  uncomfortable  prospects ;  shall  the  world,  with  its 
flattering  temptations  ;  or  sin,  with  its  deceitful  promises,  step  in 
between  us  and  our  God  ?  No,  God  forbid.  Let  us  holdfast, 
therefore,  the  profession  of  our  faith  loithout  wavering.  Having 
east  the  anchor  of  our  souls  on  the  never  to  be  shaken  truth, 
that  God  is,  and  that  he  is  the  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently 
seek  him.  Thanks  be  to  God  for  all  his  mercies,  and  for  Jesus 
Christ  through  whom  they  are  ours. 


SERMON  V. 

GOd'3    anger    against    the    WrCKKD. 

Psalm  vii.  11. 
"God  is  angry  with  tlie  wicked  every  day." 

The  most  alarming  and  dangerous  condition  that  can  be 
imagined  is,  that  of  exposure  to  the  wrath  of  God.  No  serious 
mmd  can  contemplate  it  with  any  composure,  nor  can  any  ra- 
tional  mind  choose  to  continue  liable  to  such  utter  and  irrever- 
sible destruction  as  must  follow  its  exercise. 

To  what,  then,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  are  we  to  ascribe 
the  prevailmg  disregard  of  the  sanctions  of  eternity  manifested 
by  the  numbers  who  know  and  profess  to  believe  that  life  and 
immortality  arc  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel,  that  the  wrath  of 
OrOD  IS  revealed  from  heaven  against  all  unrighteousness  of  men, 
that   God  hath  appointed  a  day  in  the  lohich   he  will  judge  the 
world  in  righteousness,  when  the  wicked  shall  be  turned  into  hell  and 
allthe  nations  that  forget  God  1  Is  it  to  unbelief-that  they  really 
do  not  give  credence  to  what  nevertheless  they  profess  to  re- 
ceive  as  the  truth  of  God  ?     Certainly  the  Scriptures  ascribe  it 
to  this  cause  upon  the  sure  ground  that  a  belief  professed  which 
yet  produces  no  corresponding  effect,  is,  in  fact,  no  belief    But 
as  this  IS  affirmed,  rather  of  the  saving  efficacy  of  faith,  as  a 
fruit  ot  the  Holy  Spirit,  than  of  the  fact,  that  men  may  and  do 
believe  m  the  sense  of  acknowledging  what  nevertheless  pro- 
duces httle  or  no  effect  upon  the  conduct  of  their  lives  ;  some 
other  cause  must  be  assigned  for  this  disregard  in  practice  of 
what  IS  yet  admitted  and  assented  to  by  all. 

As  the  most  general,  then,  I  would  assign  the  want  of  due 
consideration.  Men  content  themselves  with  the  admission  of 
he  fact,  but  they  do  not  take  and  carry  It  out  in  its  application 
to  themselves;  they  do  not  dwell  upon  it  as  a  practical  truth, 
upon  which  both  time  and  eternity  are  suspended.  They  do 
Vol.  II. — 7 


50  god's  anger  >'7ainst  the  wicked. 

not  consider  it  as  divine  and  infallible  information,  kindly  given 
for  them  to  act  upon  as  upon  any  other  truth  affecting  their 
interest ;  and  thus  the  way  is  open  for  every  delusion  of  the 
world,  every  deceit  cf  sin,  and  every  artifice  of  the  devil,  to  enter 
in  and  prevail  against  their  souls.  To  what  but  inconsideration 
of  known  and  admitted  truth,  can  it  be  ascribed,  my  brethren, 
that  the  threatenings  of  God  against  sin  and  the  promises  of 
God  to  repentance  are  equally  disregarded  by  those  who  yet,  in 
terms,  confess  that  they  are  sinners,  and  consequently  are  exposed 
to  the  wrath  of  God  ?  To  what  other  cause  can  it  be  assigned, 
that,  amidst  the  visible  uncertainties  of  human  life,  we  see  all 
ages  so  utterly  negligent  of  the  only  rational  preparation  for  a 
peaceful  and  happy  death  1  What  else  is  it  that  deludes  the 
habitual,  wilful  sinner  into  the  monstrous  absurdity  of  setting  off 
the  mercy  of  God  against  the  wrath  of  God,  and  thence  en- 
couraging himself  to  go  on  still  in  his  wickedness  1  From  what 
other  source  does  it  spring,  that  the  more  orderly  and  moral 
portion  of  the  community  speak  peace  to  themselves  in  a  right- 
eousness which  exceeds  not  the  righteousness  of  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  1  And  how  otherwise  can  we  account  for  the  prepon- 
derance of  the  world  and  the  things  that  are  in  it  in  the  affec- 
tion and  pursuit  of  immortal  beings,  who  have  revealed  to  them 
and  prepared  for  them  an  everlasting  and  unfading  inheritance 
of  heavenly  glory,  on  the  condition  of  overcoming  the  world  1 
These  are  inquiries  of  force,  sufficient  to  detect  that  evil  heart 
of  unbelief  which  neutralizes  both  the  promises  and  threaten- 
ings of  Almighty  God,  converts  the  glorious  discoveries  of  the 
gospel  into  a  dead  letter,  and  the  ministry  of  reconciliation  into 
an  occasion  of  deeper  condemnation,  and  which,  if  followed  out 
as  they  ought  to  be,  will  prove  mighty  to  awaken  in  every  heart 
the  serious  investigation  of  its  condition  as  in  the  sight  of  God, 
and  enable  us  all  to  determine,  whether  we  are  vessels  of  wrath 
or  vessels  of  mercy. 

It  is  a  very  solemn  inquiry,  my  hearers,  and  one  which  no 
■person  should  be  heedless  or  even  indifferent  in  making,  much 
less  opposed  to  ;  because  it  is  only  by  knowing  what  we  are 
that  we  can  be  confirmed  in  what  is  right,  "or  be  moved  to  be- 
pome  what  we  should,  and  what  we  may  be.  Let  us,  therefore, 


GODS    ANGER    AGAINST    THE    WICKED.  51 

consider  the  text  as  presenting  the  following  points  to  our  most 
serious  attention : 

First,  what  description  of  persons  is  here  intended,  by  the 
words  the  wicked. 

Secondly,  what  will  be  the  consequences  of  God's  anger  to 
those  who  continue  to  be  of  this  description. 

Thirdly,  by  what  means  the  character  itself  may  be  chang- 
ed, and  the  consequences  escaped. 

God  is  angry  with  the  wicked  every  day. 

I.  First,  to  consider  what  descriptions  of  persons  are  here 
intended  by  the  Avords  the  wicked. 

In  the  actual  condition  of  the  world,  and  from  the  very  nature 
of  virtue  and  vice,  there  can  be  but  two  descriptions  of  charac- 
ters among  mankind,  in  the  estimation  of  Almighty  God.  And 
these  are,  the  righteous  and  the  wicked.  And  though  there  are 
undoubtedly  degrees  in  virtue  as  well  as  vice,  not  only  in  our 
sight,  but  also  in  the  sight  of  God,  yet  as  these  are  opposite 
principles,  one  of  which  must  have  the  ascendancy  in  every 
individual,  his  denomination  is  thereby  determined.  In  a  state 
of  trial  for  recovery  from  the  fatal  effects  of  sin,  which  is  that 
of  mankind  in  the  present  life,  every  thing  of  a  moral  nature 
must  be  progressive  ;  men  grow  gradually  better,  or  gradually 
worse,  according  to  the  means  and  exertions  made  use  of.  In 
this  mixed  condition,  to  find  a  character  so  bad  that  in  it  there 
is  no  good  thing,  or  so  good  that  in  it  there  is  nothing  bad,  is  out 
of  the  range  of  our  experience  ;  and  though  with  our  limited 
view  of  motive  and  conduct,  we  may  not  always  be  able  to 
ascertain  with  certainty  the  predominant  principle,  and  thereby 
the  denomination  of  the  man,  yet  to  Almighty  God  there  is  no 
such  obstacle,  but  every  individual  stands  fully  disclosed  and 
thoroughly  understood  in  the  absolute  truth  of  the  presiding 
principle  which  determines  his  moral  condition  as  righteous  or 
wicked. 

This  standard  principle,  for  the  determination  of  moral  condi- 
tion, is  set  forth  in  Scripture  under  a  great  variety  of  expressions, 
all  enforcing  the  irrefragable  truth,  that  the  union  of  a  right 
motive  with  a  good  action,  is  that  which  alone  renders  the  con- 
duct of  accountable  beings  righteous  and  acceptable  with  God. 


52  god's  anger  against  the  wicked. 

Either  make  the  tree  good  and  his  fruit  good,  or  else  make  the  tree 
corrupt  and  his  fruit  corrupt  ;  for  the  tree  is  known  by  his  fruit. 
Hence,  as  the  love  of  God  is  the  love  of  goodness,  absolute  and 
unqualified — where  this  principle  is  shed  abroad  in  the  heart,  as 
the  apostle  expresses  it — it  will  manifest  itself  by  its  proper 
fruits.  These  may  and,  indeed,  will  be  accompanied  with  much 
imperfection,  and  mixed  up  with  many  of  the  corruptions  of  a 
fallen  nature,  even  in  the  best  of  men.  Nevertheless,  as  God 
looks  upon  the  heart,  as  he  sees  there  its  true  desire,  and 
discerns  the  godly  sorrow  and  self  abasement,  which  grow  out 
of  this  infirmity  and  corruption,  and  how  earnestly  it  is  prayed 
and  striven  against,  he  also  sees  there  his  own  image  renewed 
in  part ;  he  sees  it  improving  to  a  fuller  and  stronger  likeness, 
and  he  approves  of  and  accepts  it  according  to  the  merciful 
conditions  of  the  grace  given  us  in  Christ  Jesus,  before  the 
world  began. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  the  love  of  sin  is  the  love  of  vice 
and  wickedness,  equally  absolute  and  unqualified,  where  this 
predominates,  it  will  also  manifest  itself  by  its  proper  fruits. 
These,  in  like  manner,  may  be  accompanied  with  occasional 
instances  of  good  done  to  and  compassion  manifested  for 
others.  But,  as  the  same  God  sees  in  the  heart  no  feature  of 
his  renewed  image  ;  as  he  discerns  no  motive  to  sanctify  the 
exercise  of  constitutional  good-nature  and  self-gratification  ;  as 
the  love  of  sin,  and  not  the  love  of  God  and  goodness,  rules  and 
predominates  over  the  conduct  of  the  man,  he  is  classed,  accord- 
ingly, among  those  with  whom  God  is  angry  every  day  or 
continually. 

Hence,  the  two  descriptions  of  mankind  are  represented  in 
the  Scriptures  according  to  the  principle  by  which  they  are 
respectively  actuated.  Of  the  wicked  it  is  said,  that  God  is  not 
in  all  his  thoughts  ;  that  there  is  no  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes  ; 
that  the  wicked,  through  the  pride  of  his  countenance,  will  not  seek 
after  God.  And  of  the  righteous  it  is  said,  that  they  delight  in 
God  ;  that  they  fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments  ;  that  they 
set  the  Lord  continually  before  them ;  that  they  seek  after  God. 
From  this  delineation  of  character,  we  may  understand  to  what 
description  of  persons  the  words  of  my  text  apply — and  so  apply. 


GOD  S    ANGER    AGAINST    THH    WICKED.  53 

that   every  individual  may  therefrom  learn  to  which  class  he 
belongs. 

But,  however  plain  and  direct  the  general  principle  may  be, 

it  is  necessary  to  press  upon  your  attention,  my  brethren  and 

hearers,  that  in  its  application  to  ourselves,  as  under  a  particular 

dispensation  of   religion,  great  self-deception  may  be    and  is 

practised.     Nothing  is  more  common  in  Christian  lands,  and  I 

fear  it  is  extending  with  accelerated  speed,  than  for  men  to  rest 

upon  this  general  principle,  divested  of  those  peculiar  evidences 

which  the  gospel  requires,  as  the  only  allowable  proof— that  the 

assumption  of  it  is  warranted  and  may  be  relied  upon,  for  hope 

towards  God.     What  sentiment  more  common  and  more  relied 

upon  than  this,  that  if  the  heart  be  right  towards  God,  it  matters 

not  as  to  other  things.     And  what  notion  has  tended  more  to 

sever  Christians  from  each  other— to  lower  in  their  estimation  the 

appointments  of  the  gospel,  and  to  generate  and  support  those 

divisions  and  separations  from  the  very  bond  of  peace,  and  of  all 

virtues  which  prostrate  the  gospel  of  the  grace   of  God  at  the 

foot-stool  of  natural  religion,  and  render  stipulated  conditions  of 

mercy  and  instituted  means  of  grace  subservient  to  the  caprice 

or  convenience  of  human  opinion.     True  it  is,  that  if  the  heart 

be  right  with  God,  the   main  point,  the  one  thing  needful,  is 

gained.     But  how  can  that  person's  heart  be  right  with  God, 

whose  life  is  not  conformed  to  the  requirements  of  God,  in  the 

gospel  of  his  Son  1     To  assume  that  the  heart  is  right,  and 

thence  to  conclude  that  the  life  cannot  be  wrong,  is,  to  invert 

the  whole  ground  of  Christian  assurance,  and,  in  fact,  to  subvert 

the  gospel,  as  the  standard  of  hope  to  man.     Because  the  tree 

is  only  to  be  known  by  its  fruit.  What  ground  has  any  person  to 

conclude  that  his  heart  is  right  towards  God,  other  than  by  the 

fruit  of  its  affections,  made  visible  in  the  actions  of  the  life  1 

Ground,  certainly,  there  is  none,  other  than  that  of  miraculous 

attestation,  which,  whosoever  now  contends   for,  is  evidently 

under  a  strong  delusion.     And  yet,  through  this  door  of  deceit, 

what  a  flood  of  laxity,  indifference,  and  consequent  infidelity  of 

revealed  religion,  has  entered  in.    How  is  charity  broken,  unity 

dissolved,  faith  falsified,  and  Christ  divided  1     And  what  is  the 

auswer,  the  standing  answer,  to  all  admonition  on  these  vital 


54  god's  anger  against  the  wicked. 

points  1  If  the  heart  be  right,  all  is  right.  Counsel  is  taken 
from  feelings,  rather  than  from  commandments,  and  the  word  of 
God  made  of  none  effects 

Yet  certain  it  is,  my  brethren,  that  only  on  the  conditions 
God  hath  been  pleased  to  reveal  and  to  appoint  for  our  observ- 
ance can  there  be  a  good  hope  of  his  favour  ;  such  a  hope  as  a 
rational  being  should  rest  upon  for  eternity.  And  in  pursuing 
the  inquiry  into  our  individual  condition,  suggested  by  my  text, 
to  what  other  standard  than  the  gospel  must  we,  who  are  under 
its  blessed  light,  come  to  determine  to  what  class  of  this  world's 
population  we  belong  ? 

God  is  angry  icith  the  ivicked  every  day,  says  my  text.  Let  us, 
then,  inquire,  who  are  the  wicked  under  the  gospel  1 

In  the  first  place,  and  undisputed  by  any,  all  who  live  in  the 
commission  of  known  and  wilful  sin  are  thereby  ranked  in  the 
number  of  the  wicked,  and,  therefore,  exposed  to  the  wrath  of 
God,  nor  is  there  a  possibility  of  escape  otherwise  than  by 
repentance  toicards  God,  and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

In  the   second  place,  all  who  live  in  the  wilful  omission  of 
any  known  and  commanded  duty  do  thereby  come  under  the 
denomination  of  wicked  persons,  with  whom  God  is  continually 
angry.  Under  the  circumstances  in  which  all  who  are  favoured 
with  the  gospel  are  placed,  sins  of  omission  have  one  quality  of 
aggravation   which   sins  of  commission  have  not,  and   that  is 
in°"ratitude.     All  sin  implies  contempt  of   God's  authority,  but 
sins  of  omission  add  thereto  contempt  of  his  loving  kindness  and 
tender  mercy  ;  and  yet  they  give  less  uneasiness  to  those  who 
are  guilty  of  them  than  the  other.     Of  those   now  before  me, 
there  is  not  one,  I  trust,  who  woujd  not  be  truly  concerned  to 
have  upon  his  soul  the  guilt  of  blood  or  of  any  other  grievous 
crime,  yet  how  perfectly  unconcerned  are  those  same  persons, 
under  the  guilt  of  delayed  repentance,  of  God's  message  of 
mercy  and  love  by  his  only  begotten  Son  slighted  and  made 
lio-ht  of,  of  the  confession  of  Jesus  Christ  before  the  world  by 
a  public  profession  of  his  religion  refused,  of  the  commemora- 
tion of  his  dying  love   disregarded,  with   many  others  which 
might  be  named  ;    and  yet  these  are  not  only  commanded  as 
expressly  as  we  are  commanded  to  do  no  murder,  but  are  com- 


GOD  S  ANGER  AGAINST  THE  WICKED.  55 

manded  lor  our  personal  advantage  as  means  of  grace,  as  chan- 
nels of  favour  and  blessing  from  God  of  a  special  nature,  and  as 
proofs  that  we  entertain  a  grateful  sense  of  the  great  love 
wherewith  God  hath  loved  us.  Now,  my  dear  friends,  where 
must  those  be  classed,  by  a  heart-searching  God,  who  thus  ne- 
glect the  prime  duties  of  redeemed  creatures  ;  who  are  neither 
drawn  by  love,  nor  driven  by  fear,  to  save  themselves  from  the 
wrath  of  God  ]  Belong  they  to  the  righteous,  or  to  the  wicked 
with  whom  God  is  angry  every  day  1  O  let  your  consciences 
awake  to  the  truth  of  your  condition  ;  listen  to  none  of  the  de- 
ceitful and  ruinous  excuses  with  which  the  father  of  lies  would 
persuade  you  to  put  off  till  to-morrow  what  cannot  be  delayed 
but  at  the  risk  of  everlasting  despair  ;  give  no  place  to  the  whis- 
pers of  self-righteousness,  to  the  Pharisaic  pride  of  being  better 
than  many  others  whom  you  can  name.  For  there  is  no  middle 
or  neutral  ground  on  which  to  place  you  between  the  righteous 
and  the  wicked.  You  may  not  be  as  wicked  as  many  others,  and 
yet  wicked  enough  to  be  driven  from  God  for  ever.  There  is 
no  place  between  salvation  and  damnation  for  good  moral  peo- 
ple to  be  consigned  to.  We,  indeed,  read  of  some  who  are  said 
to  be  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  God.  But  this  only  repre- 
sents their  state  as  being  relatively  more  hopeful  than  that  of 
others  ;  not  that  they  have  changed  their  denomination  by  that 
surrender  of  themselves  to  God,  and  that  observance  of  his 
commands,  which  enable  him  to  lay  aside  his  anger,  and  to  re- 
gard them  with  favour  and  affection  as  his  children.  This  is  yet 
to  do,  and  the  word  of  divine  truth  warns  us  that  we  may  be  so 
near  as  to  lack  but  one  thing,  one  single  step,  and  yet  refuse  to 
take  that  one.  O  world,  world,  world,  what  hast  thou  to  give 
in  exchange  for  the  immortal  souls  which  are  brought  to  ruin  by 
thy  perishing  treasure  of  riches,  honours,  and  pleasures,  which 
are  not  of  the  Father  1  O  fools  and  blind,  who  are  bewitched 
with  the  sorceries  of  sin,  to  forget  the  realities  of  eternity,  and 
dream  through  your  day  of  grace,  unconcerned  for  death  and 
judgment — what  will  it  profit  you  if  ijou  gain  the  world  and  lose 
your  oicn  souls  ? 

Let  us,  then,  consider, 

II.  Secondly,  what  will  be  the  consequences  of  God's  anger 
to  those  who  continue  to  be  of  this  description. 


oh  GOD  S    ANGER    AGAINST    THE    WICKED, 

Now  these  will  include  a  state  of  privation  and  a  state  of 
positive  suffering'. 

The  state  of  privation  will  consist  of  exclusion  from  God  the 
chief  good,  from  the  glory  and  blessedness  of  heaven,  and  from 
all  means  to  regain  what  is  lost.  The  icicked  will  be  banished  from 
the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  his  power,  with  an 
everlasting  destruction.  This,  my  brethren,  is  a  view  of  the  sub- 
ject, with  which  our  thoughts  are  not  as  familiar  as  they  should 
be  ;  yet  not  only  from  express  revelation,  but  from  the  very 
reason  and  nature  of  things,  it  must  be  so.  By  the  impenitent 
and  unbelieving-  every  invitation  of  the  love  of  God  has  been 
refused,  every  threatening  of  the  wrath  of  G  od  has  been  un- 
heeded, every  means  of  the  grace  of  God  has  been  neglected, 
no  change  of  heart,  no  transformation  of  character  has  been 
effected,  no  participation  of  the  divine  nature  has  been  attained 
in  the  present  life  .There  being,  therefore,  no  point  of  union  and 
agreement,  there  can  be  no  society,  no  intercourse,  no  inter- 
change of  affection  between  God  and  them,  and  separation  is 
inevitable.  Now,  my  dear  hearers,  were  this  all,  were  future 
misery  confined  to  exclusion  from  God  for  ever,  it  would  in  itself 
amount  to  perdition.  An  immortal,  unchangeable  sinner,  sub- 
limed by  his  immortality  to  the  highest  virulence  of  sin,  wander- 
ing forever  in  darkness  and  despair,  is  a  most  horrible  contem- 
plation, and  sufficient  of  itself  to  alarm  us  from  the  love  and 
practice  of  sin,  and  to  drive  us  to  the  cross  of  Christ  for  deliver- 
ance from  its  power  and  guilt.  And  it  must  and  it  will  be  thus 
with  the  wicked,  for  He  who  cannot  lie  hath  said.  If  ye  die  in 
your  sins,  where  I  am  thither  ye  cannot  come. 

But  this  is  not  all — the  wicked  will  not  only  be  deprived  of 
the  beatific  vision  of  God,  and  of  the  bliss  which  his  presence 
confers,  but  they  will  be  exposed  to  the  additional  misery  of 
positive  suffering,  of  actual  torture,  inconceivable,  and  intermina- 
ble. This  is  set  forth  to  us  in  the  word  of  God,  as  affecting 
both  the  body  and  the  soul — the  body  exposed  to  everlasting 
burnings,  and  the  soul  to  the  gnawings  of  the  icorm  that  never 
dies.  These,  indeed,  are  figurative  expressions,  but  they  are  not, 
therefore,  the  less  real,  and  figures  are,  therefore,  made  use  of, 
because  we  can  only  form  our  conceptions  of  future  sufferings, 
as  well  as  of  future  enjoyments,  by  comparison.     Things,  there- 


god's  anger  against  the  wicked.  57 

fore,  of  which  we  can  form  some  idea,  by  experience,  of  their 
effects,  are  made  use  of  to  convey  to  our  apprehension,  things 
of  which  we  can  form  no  adequate  notion.  Thus  the  torment 
of  actual  fire  and  the  tortures  of  an  awakened  conscience  are 
resorted  to,  to  bring  our  sense  of  known  pain  to  act  upon  what 
cannot  be  described,  what  only  can  and  must  be  endured  by  those 
who  know  not  God  and  obey  not  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  use  of  figurative  language,  therefore,  is  no  argu- 
ment against  the  positive  torments  of  the  wicked  in  a  future 
state,  but  rather  the  reverse  ;  and  the  resorting  to  this  mode,  is 
a  proof  of  God's  great  condescension  to  the  weakness  of  our 
faculties,  and  of  his  earnest  desire  to  save  us  from  our  sins,  if 
not  by  the  mercies  of  his  love,  yet  by  the  terrors  of  his  wrath. 
We  know  something  of  pain  in  the  present  life,  my  brethren,  by 
the  acute  tortures  which  even  a  mortal  body  can  sustain,  under 
God's  visitations  of  chastening  correction  for  our  good,  and 
should  not  this  serve  to  give  us  some  idea  of  the  dreadful  nature 

of  those  torments  which  are  poured  out  in  wrath,  not  in  love 

to  punish,  not  to  reclaim.  My  hearers,  what  is  it  that  omnipo- 
tence cannot  inflict  1  what  is  it  that  an  immortal  being  cannot 
endure  1  what  increase  of  misery  may  not  grow  with  eternity  1 
what  is  it  of  imaginable  or  unimaginable  suffering  which  the 
rejectors  of  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified,  do  not  deserve  ] 
O  let  these  awful  realities  strip  the  mask  from  sin  and  show  it 
in  all  its  horrors,  present  and  future ;  count  the  cost  at  which 
its  transient  pleasures  must  be  purchased;  and  now,  while 
escape  is  possible,  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.  Reflect,  I 
beseech  you,  how  short,  to  many,  is  the  remainder  of  life — how 
much  shorter  to  all  a  sudden  death  may  make  it ;  and  now, 
while  it  is  called  to-day,  turn  to  the  strong  hold  ye  prisoners  of 
hope,  to  the  mercy  offered  you  in  the  gospel,  and  make  the  cross 
of  Christ  your  refuge  from  everlasting  burnings. 

III.  Thirdly,  let  us  consider  by  what  means  the  character 
itself  may  be  changed  and  these  consequences  escaped. 

To   any  profitable  use  and  application  of  God's  revealed 

mercy  to  a  world  of  sinners,  it  is  first  of  all  necessary  that  we 

obtain  a  just  view  of  our  actual  condition.     It  is  not  enough  to 

admit  in  terms,  as  we  have  been  taught  perhaps,  that  we  are 

Vol.  II.— 8 


58  god's    A^.OER    AGAIISST    THE    WICKED. 

sinners ;  no,  my  friends,  the  condition  itself  must  be  felt,  must 
be  realized  in  all  the  extent  of  its  danger  and  destitution. 
Nothing  short  of  this  can  create  the  desire  for  relief  and  deliver- 
ance— nothing  but  the  sense  of  our  disease  can  bring  us  to  the 
physician  of  souls.  What,  then,  is  the  sinner"?  The  enemy  of  God 
— his  enemy  by  wicked  works — an  outcast  from  his  favour — 
the  miserable  prey  of  disease,  death,  and  hell ;  this  is  all  that 
he  is  in  himself  And  is  this  a  desirable  condition  for  an  immor- 
tal being,  for  one  who  cannot,  if  he  would,  hide  from  himself 
that  there  is  another  life,  and  that  there  the  retributions  of  justice 
and  the  sanctions  of  eternity  await  him? 

But  whence  do  we  learn  that  we  are  by  nature  this  abject 
miserable  thing  1  From  the  word  of  God  and  from  our  own 
hearts,  my  hearers,  deceitful  though  they  be.  Oh  !  there  is  a 
voice  within  us  which  responds  to  the  truth  of  God,  and  by 
every  emotion  of  fear  and  apprehension,  at  real  or  imaginary 
danger,  proclaims  that  we  are  separated  from  our  God — that  con- 
fidence is  gone — that  love  is  extinguished  by  fear — and  desire  by 
hatred.  These  are  strong  expressions,  my  friends,  but  they  are 
the  words  of  inspiration  and  experience.  Inspiration  tells  us, 
that  all  have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God;  that 
there  is  none  righteous,  no,  not  one ;  that  the  wages  of  sin  is  death  ; 
that  the  sinner  knows  not  that  he  is  wretched,  and  miserable^ 
and  poor,  and  blind,  and  naked.  And  experience  tells  us,  that 
the  good  that  I  icould  I  do  not,  but  the  evil  which  I  icould  not  that  I 
do.  If,  then,  I  do  that  ivhich  I  icould  not,  I  consent  unto  the  law 
that  it  is  good.  But  I  see  another  law  in  my  members,  warring 
against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into  captivity  to  the 
law  of  sin,  which  is  in  my  members.  Oh  !  wretched  man  that  I  am ! 
who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ? 

This  is  the  sinner,  in  the  truth  of  his  condition — but  it  is  the 
awakened  sinner — the  sinner  crying  out,  what  must  I  do  to  be 
saved?  And  thanks  be  to  God,  who  hath  provided  deliverance 
and  salvation  for  all  who  seek  it,  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  Hearken,  then,  and  learn  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the 
life,  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  Let  the  word  of  God,  and  the  witness  of 
your  own  hearts,  cure  your  unbelief.  Be  no  longer  faithless, 
but    believing;    and    learn  that  you  are   this    poor,  undone. 


god's  anger  against  the  wicked.  69 

wretched  thing,  called  a  sinner.      As  such,  seek  unto  God   in 
prayer  for  the  help  of  his  Holy   Spirit,  that  his  saving  con- 
victions may  deepen  your  penitence  unto  godly  sorrow,  and 
strengthen  you  to  cease  from  sin.      Ask  and  ye  shall  receive ; 
seek  and  ye  shall  find ;  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you. 
Continue  in  his  word,  by  reading,  meditation,  and  prayer,  that 
you    may    grow  in  the  knowledge   of    divine  things,  and   be 
nourished  up  in  the  words  of  faith  and  of  good  doctrine.     Listen 
to  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  to  your  heart  through  the  word 
of  life,  that  he  may  show  you    the  things  that  are  freely  given 
you  of  God — even  the  humiliation,  passion,  and   death  of  his 
only  begotten  Son,  to  make  atonement  for  your  sins,  that  you 
might  have  life  through  his  name.     Dwell  on  this  exceeding  great 
love  of  God  our  Saviour,  which  he  shed  on  us  abundantly,  through 
Jesus   Christ  our  Saviour,  till  your  heart  warms  under  the 
contemplation,  and  you  learn  to  love  him  who  hath  first  loved  you, 
and  loving,  to  confess  him  before  men  as  your  Saviour  and  your 
God.     Pray  for  the  renewing,  sanctifying  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  with  constancy  and  fervour,  and  strive  to  be  what  you 
pray  for.     Watch  continually  against  sin,  mortifying  the  sinful 
desires  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  mind.     Look  for  the  evidences  of 
your  acceptance  in  the  Beloved  in  increased  longings  after  God, 
increased  delight  in  his  service,  diminished  power  of  temptation, 
and  victory  over  sin.     These  shall  speak  a  language  to  your 
heart  which  cannot  deceive,  for  they  are  the  fruits  of  the  blessed 
Spirit  of  promise  dwelling  in  you,  and  working  in  you  both  to 
xcill  and  to  do.     Thus  shall  you  possess  the  witness  in  yourself, 
and  find  joy  and  peace  in  believing,  and  thus  shall  the  trans- 
forming power  of  divine  grace  separate  you  from  the  world, 
enrol  you  in  the  family  of  God,  and  keep  you  by  his  mighty 
power,  through  faith,  unto  salvation.     To  the  believer  the  wrath 
due  to  sin  is  quenched  in  the  blood  of  Christ  ;  the  fear  that 
hath  torment  gives  place  to  that  perfect  love  which  casteth  out 
fear  ;  and  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
adorn  the  life  and  make  happy  the  death  of  him,  who,  by  hearty 
repentance  and  true  faith,  has  found  peace  with  God  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

God  is  angry  with  the  wicked  every  day ;  yet,  to  the  eternal 


60  god's  anger  against  the  wicked. 

praise  of  his  abounding  love,  he  hath  provided  for  these  very 
wicked,  that  they  may  turn  from  their  wickedness  and  be  for- 
given, and  made  heirs  of  everlasting  life.  This  message  of 
salvation  is  sent  to  each  one  of  us,  my  hearers.  Mercy  and 
forgiveness  are  freely  offered  to  us  all  on  the  terms  of  the  gospel. 
Shall  we,  then,  believe  God,  obey  and  live  ;  or  go  down  to  death 
loaded  with  the  heinous  guilt  of  having  rejected  the  counsel  of 
God  against  our  own  souls,  of  having  put  away  from  us  the 
means  of  grace,  the  hope  of  mercy  and  eternal  life,  purchased 
by  the  blood  of  Christ  1  This  is  the  solemn  inquiry  that  meets 
you  this  day,  and  which  this  day  is  given  you  to  answer ;  another 
may  not  be  yours.  Meet  it,  then,  with  the  seriousness  it 
deserves,  and  may  grace  be  given  you  to  choose  that  good  part 
which  shall  not  be  taken  from  you. 


SERMON  VI. 

THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

1  Corinthians  ii.  14. 

"  But  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  spirit  of  God,  for  they  are 
foolishness  unto  him ;  neither  can  he  know  them,  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned." 

It  requires  but  a  small  acquamtance  with  ourselves,  my 
brethren,  and  no  very  extensive  observation  of  human  nature, 
to  discover  the  import  of  the  text ;  but  it  requires  a  deeper 
consideration  than  men  in  general  are  disposed  to  give  it,  to 
attain  those  advantages  which  flow  from  divine  truth  received 
and  acted  upon. 

The  primary  object  of  revelation  being  to  give  to  mankind 
information  of  what  they  could  not  otherwise  know,  and  the 
information  given  being  of  things  spiritual  and  heavenly,  bearing 
upon  our  peace  and  comfort  in  time  and  our  well-being  in  eter- 
nity, its  claims  upon  our  attention  can  only  be  rightly  measured 
by  the  interests  which  are  at  stake  ;  and  it  might  most  reasonably 
be  presumed,  that  what  was  so  vitally  important  to  every  indi- 
vidual person,  would  be  as  gladly  and  joyfully  attended  to,  as 
thankfully  embraced  and  followed  out  in  its  directions,  as  hght 
is  welcomed  by  the  weary  and  benighted  traveller,  or  the  means 
of  healing  and  health  by  the  sick  and  diseased. 

Yet  observation  and  experience  prove  to  us,  my  hearers,  that 
it  is  othervi^ise  in  the  practice  of  the  world.  The  text,  therefore, 
is  verified  to  us  in  its  assertion  ;  and  intimately  connected  as  it  is 
with  the  truth  of  our  present  condition,  may  lead  to  an  improve- 
ment profitable  to  all  present. 

The  subject  before  us,  in  connexion  with  the  context, 
presents  to  our  consideration  two  descriptions  of  persons,  alike 
in  their  original  but  different  in  their  actual  character,  the 
natural  and  the  spiritual  man.  It,  therefore,  obviously  leads  us 
to  examine  not  only  the  distinction  between  them,  but  the  cause, 


oa  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

also,  of  that  distinction,  with  the  consequences  which  attach  to 
their  respective  states,  as  well  by  the  reason  of  the  thing  as  by 
the  wise  appointment  of  God. 

I  shall,  therefore,  endeavour  to  show  you. 
First,  what  we  are  to  understand  by  the  words  natural  man, 
as  here  used  by  the  apostle. 

Secondly,  whatthose  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God  are  which 
are  foolishness  to  the  natural  man. 

Thirdly,  I  shall  inquire  why  these  particular  things  are 
counted  foolishness  ;  and,  then. 

Conclude  with  some  remarks  on  the  consequences  which 
must  follow  to  those  who  remain  in  this  condition. 

But  the  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  for  they  are  foolishness  unto  him,  neither  can  he  know  them, 
because  they  are  spiritually  discerned. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  show  you  what  we  are  to  understand  by  the 
words  natural  man,  as  here  used  by  the  apostle. 

In  limiting  the  meaning  of  the  words  to  the  particular  sense 
in  which  they  are  here  used  by  the  apostle,  it  is  not  to  be  infer- 
red that  there  is  no  other  and  useful  meaning  in  which  this 
passage  of  Scripture  is  to  be  taken.  It  was  not  the  apostle's 
intention,  nor  is  it  mine,  to  exclude  the  awfully  verified  truth, 
that  to  man  fallen  there  is  not,  by  his  nature,  any  true  know- 
ledge of  his  own  condition,  or  any  saving  knowledge  of  God. 
In  this  respect,  we  are  all  alike  destitute  of  spiritual  capacity  or 
spiritual  power.  So  true  is  this,  that  had  God  been  silent,  or 
withheld  his  Holy  Spirit,  it  never  could  have  entered  into  the 
heart  of  man  to  conceive  any  thing  of  his  nature,  or  of  the  wor- 
ship and  service  due  to  him  from  rational  beings.  For  though 
mankind  are  not  deprived,  by  their  fallen  condition,  of  any  of 
the  faculties  of  rational  creatures,  yet  so  debased  and  degraded 
are  those  faculties,  so  perverted  and  turned  round  from  their 
original  destination,  that  they  serve  only  a  secondary  purpose, 
and  are  conversant,  not  with  spiritual,  but  sensible  things,  so 
that  experience  confirms  the  truth  of  God's  word,  that  the  world 
by  wisdom  never  knew  God. 

In  another  respect,  however,  this  disability  is  removed  ;  for 
the  grace  of  God,  ^vhich  bringeth  salvation,  hath  appeared  to  all 


THE    NATURAL    MAN.  63 

men.  Particularly  under  the  gospel  is  this  distinguishing  privi- 
lege conferred  on  all  who  hear  the  joyful  sound  ;  they  are 
called,  as  our  catechism  expresses  it,  to  a  state  of  salvation  by 
Jesus  Christ,  and  furnished  with  all  the  means  necessary 
thereto. 

Yet,  though  this  is  undeniably  the  case,  and  the  only  view  of 
the  subject  which  makes  religion  a  reasonable  service,  neverthe- 
less, the  glad  tidings  of  the  gospel  and  the  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  do  not  operate  as  charms.     As  we  are  rational 
beings,  the  information  given  us  is  to  be  acted  upon,  the  help 
offered  us  is  to  be  resorted  to,   and  the  duties  enjoined  upon  u§ 
are  to  be  performed,  otherwise  there  is  no  benefit  to  be  expected. 
Revelation  is  addressed,  first  to  our  understandings,  next  to 
our  wants,  then  to  our  interests,  and,  through  all  these  to  our 
affections.     And  when  either  sufficiently  proved  or  admitted,  as 
a  communication  from  God,  our  reason  has  no  other  province 
than  to  receive  or  reject  it.     It  is  not  the  prerogative  of  our 
rational  faculties  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  mode  or  the  manner 
in  which  God  shall  reveal  himself  to  his  creatures,  or  yet  on  the 
means  by  which  his  benefits  shall  be  conferred  on  us;  with  all 
this  we  have  nothing  to  do,  we  are  saved  by  grace  through  faith. 
To  act  upon  a  different  principle,  then,   is  to  usurp  a  station 
which  does  not  belong  to  us,  to  the  details  of  which  we  are  not 
competent,  and  by  the  entertainment  of  which  we  manifest  the 
very  temper  denounced  in  my  text.    Hence  we  learn,  my  breth- 
ren, to  what  description  of  persons  St.  Paul  applies  the  expres- 
sion of  natural  man,  in  the  passage  of  Scripture  under  consider- 
ation. 

It  is  the  man  who  sets  the  wisdom  of  the  world  on  a  par  with 
the  wisdom  of  God.  It  is  the  man  who  would  bring  the  myste- 
ries of  the  divine  will  in  the  redemption  of  the  world,  to  be  tried 
at  the  bar  of  human  reason  ;  it  is  the  man  who  proudly  rejects 
what  his  shallow  reason  cannot  fathom  ;  it  is  the  man  who  care- 
lessly neglects  the  treasures  of  divine  wisdom  furnished  in  the 
Scriptures  of  truth  ;  it  is  the  wise  man,  the  philosopher,  the 
disputer  of  this  world,  who  would  try  the  gospel,  its  glorious 
discoveries,  its  means,  and  its  mercies,  by  a  standard  beneath 
its  measure,  and  receive   or  reject  it  according  as  it  agreed 


64  THE    NATURAL    MAN. 

therewith.  It  is  the  Greek,  who  counted  the  preaching  of  the 
cross  foolishness,  because  it  squared  not  with  the  rules  of  the 
philosophy  of  the  day.  This,  my  hearers,  is  the  natural  man 
whom  the  apostle  had  in  his  eye  when  he  penned  this  passage, 
who  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  to  whom 
they  are  foolishness.  The  apostle  speaks  not  here  of  the  natural 
inability  of  fallen  creatures  to  regain  the  favour  of  God,  to  comply 
with  his  holy  and  spiritual  law,  and  prepare  themselves  for  his 
presence  in  glory.  This  deficiency  he  was  provided  to  remedy  in 
every  sincere  mind,  by  the  grace  of  that  Jesus  whom  he  preach- 
ed to  them  ;  but  he  speaks  of  those  who,  when  the  gospel  was 
proposed  to  them,  received  not  the  truth  in  the  love  of  it,  who 
submitted  not  themselves  to  the  righteousness  of  God,  by 
believing  and  obeying  his  message,  but  resisted  it  upon  the 
strength  of  their  own  reason,  or  through  the  love  of  their  own 
corruptions  ;  making  themselves  wiser  than  God,  and  prefer- 
ring time  to  eternity. 

And  are  there  none  of  this  description  of  persons  in  the 
present  day  ]  Are  there  none  among  us  who  are  entitled,  in  this 
acceptation  of  the  words,  to  the  name  of  natural  men  1  Alas  ! 
for  the  multitudes  who,  either  by  neglect  or  perversion,  bar 
themselves  out  from  the  grace  of  the  gospel.  Alas  !  for  the 
thousands  who  dispute  against  the  gospel,  who  think  it  an 
accomplishment  to  be  above  its  faith  and  its  duties,  and  who 
listen  with  greedy  ears  to  what  perverted  reason  can  muster  up 
in  behalf  of  infidelity  in  some  of  its  protean  shapes.  Alas  !  alas  ! 
cannot  fallen  sinners  find  the  way  to  hell  readily  enough  without 
deepening  their  damnation  by  sinning  against  light  and  know- 
ledge, denying  the  Lord  that  bought  them,  and  treading  under 
foot  the  Son  of  God. 

But  it  may  and  will  be  asked  of  what  use,  then,  is  our  reason, 
the  distinguishing  attribute  of  man,  if  it  is  not  to  be  applied  in 
this  our  supreme  concern  1  And  who  ever  said  or  thought  that  it 
is  not  to  be  here  applied,  yea,  earnestly  and  diligently  applied  1 
Certainly  I  have  never  said  so,  nor  yet  given  room  for  any  to 
think  I  said  so,  unless  by  such  an  overhasty  conclusion  as  dark- 
ens counsel. 

Permit  me,  however,  in  my  turn,  to  ask  a  question  of  these 


FAITH  IN  GOD.  65 

contenders  for  the  supremacy  of  human  reason.  To  what  end, 
think  you,  was  reason  given  you  as  respects  things  spiritual  and 
invisible  1  what  is  its  proper  province  in  application  to  them  1 
Have  you  ever  asked  yourself  this  question  1  Can  you  answer 
it  ?  If  not,  your  boasted  reason  has  not  yet  done  the  best  part 
of  its  office  for  you. 

Learn,  then,  that  the  highest  use  of  the  faculty  of  reason  in 
man,  fallen,  is  to  render  him  capable  of  instruction  in  things  of  a 
spiritual  and  heavenly  nature.  Human  reason  can  have  no 
privity  with  the  mind  or  will  of  God,  and,  had  God  been  silent, 
never  could  have  advanced  one  step  beyond  the  things  that  are 
seen  ;  for  even  the  superstitions  of  the  Heathen  are  all  resolva- 
ble into  the  original  revelation  made  to  Adam  after  his  fall. 
Revelation,  then,  is  to  reason  in  things  spiritual  what  light  is  to 
the  eye  in  things  natural ;  for  reason  is  the  eye  of  the  mind. 
However  perfect,  therefore,  in  all  its  parts  the  eye  may  be,  take 
away  the  material  light  and  where  or  what  is  its  use  ?  It  is  an 
incumbrance,  a  hindrance,  presenting  something  to  rely  upon 
which  yet  answers  not  the  purpose. 

In  like  manner,  my  brethren,  and  by  an  analogy  of  the  strict- 
est kind,  however  perfect  human  reason  may  be,  however 
improved  and  extended  in  all  its  capacities,  deprive  it  of  the  light 
of  revealed  truth,  and  what  is  its  value  in  spiritual  things  1  Of 
what  use,  in  particular,  is  it  in  the  deep  mystery  of  man's  redemp- 
tion by  the  Son  of  God  1  Alas !  is  it  not,  even  to  our  experience, 
a  hindrance,  a  stumbling  block,  a  betrayer  of  souls  to  all  those 
who  will  not  learn  its  right  use,  but  proudly  exalt  a  depraved 
and  perverted  attribute  of  the  creature  into  the  place  and  station 
of  the  Most  High  God. 

Human  reason,  my  friends,  is  competent  to  determine 
whether  we  have  a  revelation  of  the  will  of  God,  because  it  is  by 
this  faculty  alone,  that  the  truth  and  certainty  of  the  evidences 
by  which  its  title  is  established  are  to  be  judged.  But  this 
being  done  reason  can  go  no  further  ;  it  is  not  competent  to 
decide  on  the  propriety  or  fitness  of  what  is  revealed.  For 
example — 

Whether  the  doctrine  of  the  trinity  be  a  part  of  the  revelation 
made  to  our  faith,  is  a  question  for  our  reason  to  examine  and 

Vol.  II.— 9 


66  FAITH    IN    GOD. 

determine.  But  whether  it  be  consistent  with  the  nature  of  the 
Supreme  Being  that  such  should  be  the  manner  of  his  subsistence, 
is  a  question  we  have  no  means  of  resolving,  and,  therefore, 
ought  not  to  entertain.  To  assent,  then,  upon  grounds  of  human 
reason,  that  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  that 
it  should  consist  in  three  coeternal  subsistences,  is  not  only  to 
be  wise  above  what  is  written,  Intruding  into  thhigs  not  seen, 
vainly  puffed  up  by  a  fleshly  mind,  but  is  an  illogical  assumption 
of  the  point  in  argument.  And  to  support  this  assertion  by 
reasonings  from  the  incomprehensibility  to  us  of  such  a  mode  of 
subsistence  in  deity  is,  in  fact,  atheistical.  Because  the  same 
a^'gument  is  equally  good  against  the  being  of  God  under  any 
other  mode  of  subsistence  ;  for  a  self-existent,  underived,  eternal 
Being,  as  the  Almighty  must  be  in  his  nature  or  not  be  at  all, 
is  as  incomprehensible  to  our  faculty  in  a  single  essence  as  in 
three. 

The  sum  is  this,  my  hearers — the  fact  our  reason  can  compass, 
the  mode  it  cannot  compass.  We,  therefore,  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the  mode  ;  and  to  intrude  into  it  with  our  puny  measure 
of  intelligence  is  precisely  that  abuse  and  perversion  of  reason 
which  marks  the  natural  man  of  my  text,  to  whom  the  things  of 
the  Spirit  of  God,  that  is,  the  mysteries  revealed  to  our  faith, 
are  foolishness. 

Let,  then,  these  plain  and  practical  truths  guard  you,  my  breth- 
ren and  hearers,  against  the  seductive  sophistry,  which  would 
exalt  your  reason  at  the  expense  of  your  souls — which  would 
lead  you  away  from  the  only  foundation,  and  leave  you  on  the 
dark  and  slippery  steps  of  an  unreasonable  infidelity.  For,  as 
the  apostle  argues,  in  the  11th  verse  of  this  chapter,  what  man 
knoiceth  the  things  of  a  man,  save  the  spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him, 
even  so  the  things  of  God  knowelhno  man,  hut  the  Spirit  of  God. 

But,  while  this  is  undoubtedly  the  primary  sense  in  which  the 
apostle  here  uses  the  words  natural  man,  as  is  evident  from  the 
context — for  he,  throughout,  contrasts  the  natural  man  with  the 
spiritual,  or  spiritually  enlightened  man — yet,  as  I  observed  in 
the  outset,  this  is  not  the  only  sense  in  which  the  text  is  to  be 
used  and  applied  by  us.  For  we  may  apply  it  to  man  as  he 
now  is,  a  fallen,  depraved  creature,  savouring  only  the  things  of 


FAITH  IN  GOD. 


67 


time  and  sense,  and  indisposed  and  averse  to  the  entertainment 
of  things  spiritual  and  heavenly.  It  also  denotes  the  unrenewed 
man,  the  person  upon  whom  the  grace  of  the  gospel  has  produced 
no  change  ;  upon  whom  the  Spirit  of  God  hath  not  operated 
the  mighty  transformation  of  a  new  creature.  And  this,  because 
the  discoveries  of  the  gospel  have  not  been  met  in  faith,  and 
God  sought  unto,  as  he  is  therein  revealed  and  set  forth,  by  and 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

This  gives  to  the  words  of  my  text  a  wide  range,  my  brethren, 
inasmuch  as  it  includes  all  who  hold  themselves  back  from  the 
claims  of  the  gospel  upon  their  attention  and  observance,  whether 
that  proceed  from  the  proud  and  lofty  pretensions  of  infidel 
reason,  or  the  carelessness  and  neglect  of  worldly  occupation, 
or  the  love  of  sensual  indulgence.  To  what  extent  and  under 
which  designation  the  words  may  be  most  properly  applied, 
those  who  hear  them  are  the  most  competent  judges  ;  and  I 
•earnestly  beseech  all  present,  who  are  not  conscious  of  that 
spiritual  change  which  must  pass  upon  all  who  would  see  God 
and  live,  seriously  to  lay  to  heart  the  unutterable  consequences 
of  turning  a  deaf  ear  to  saving  truth,  and  an  unwilling  mind  to 
commanded  duty.  The  day  of  grace  is  shortening — the  day  of 
eternity  is  drawing  near — awake,  then,  thou  thai  sleepest  in  thy 
natural  state,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light. 

11.  Secondly,  I  am  to  show  you  what  those  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  are,  which  are  foolishness  to  the  natural  man. 

That  these  are  the  mysteries  of  the  gospel,  the  things  which 
in  an  especial  manner  are  the  things  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
which  he  told  his  disciples  the  Holy  Spirit  would  take  and  show 
unto  them,  is  clear,  both  from  the  tenour  and  purpose  of  the 
gospel,  and  from  the  whole  structure  of  the  apostle's  argument 
in  this  epistle. 

The  Grecian  philosophers  of  St.  Paul's  day  decried  and 
derided  the  doctrines  of  the  cross  ;  they  brought  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  preached  by  him  with  great  plainness  of  speech, 
indeed,  but  with  miraculous  attestation  to  their  truth — to  the 
standard  of  the  wisdom  of  their  schools,  and,  because  not  answer- 
able to  the  principles  of  their  philosophy,  they  rejected  them. 

It  was  not  the  morality  of  the  gospel,  my  hearers,  that  was 


68  FAITH    IN    GOD. 

foolishness  in  their  view,  but  its  spirituality.  No  men  taught  more 
zealously  the  moral  principles  of  truth,  justice,  and  temperance, 
than  the  ancient  sages  of  Greece.  With  this  part  of  Christianity 
there  was  no  difliculty.  But  they  stumbled  at  those  mysterious 
but  heaven-attested  doctrines,  in  union  with  which  only  can  the 
morality  of  fallen  sinners  be  exalted  to  the  dignified  station  of 
rehgion.  It  was  the  stupendous  doctrine  of  God  made  sin, 
that  man  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him,  with 
all  that  flows  from  this  doctrine,  of  our  lost  and  undone  condi- 
tion, and  of  our  need  of  renewing  grace  that  offended  their  self- 
righteous  estimation  of  their  own  worth.  It  was  the  incarnation 
of  God  the  Son — the  sacrifice  of  the  cross — the  virtue  of  the 
atonement  thereby  made  for  sin,  and  the  unqualified  necessity 
of  faith  in  tliis  crucified  Jesus,  as  God  manifest  in  the  flesh — 
dying  for  our  sins — rising  for  our  justification — ascended  into 
heaven  for  our  assurance  of  immortality — glorified  and  reigning 
for  salvation  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  constituted  the  judge 
of  quick  and  dead — these  were  the  high  discoveries  which  over- 
threw the  systems  of  their  fanciful  mythology.  It  was  at  these 
stumbling  truths  that  their  pride  revolted.  It  was  by  these 
mysterious  doctrines  that  their  wisdom  was  confounded  ;  and  as 
they  received  not  the  love  of  truth  that  they  might  be  saved, 
they  incurred  the  delusion  of  believing  a  lie  that  they  might  be 
damned.  And  is  there  nothing  in  this  warning,  my  friends, 
which  knocks  awfully  at  the  hearts  of  those  who  stand  in 
the  like  danger  by  incurring  the  like  guilt  1  Is  there  nothing 
to  alarm  the  fears  of  those  who  exalt  the  meagre  and  vapid 
reasonings  of  infidel  science  against  God  and  the  word  of  his 
grace  1  Is  there  nothing  to  show  the  wise,  and  the  mighty,  and 
the  noble  of  this  Christian  land,  why  the  gospel  is  not  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation  to  them  ?  Is  there  nothing  in  this  delinea- 
tion of  the  first  principles  of  religion,  to  enable  all  present  to 
determine  whether  they  are  natural  or  spiritual  men  1  Above 
all,  is  there  nothing  to  show  them  that  better  way  which  God 
has  marked  out  and  promised  to  bless  all  who  walk  in  it  ?  O, 
beware,  my  dear  brethren  and  hearers,  lest  any  man  spoil  you 
through  philosophy  and  vain  deceit — after  the  traditions  of  men, 
after  the  rudiments  of  the  world,  and  not  after  Christ.     And 


FAITH    IN    GOD.  C9 

O,  beware  that  ye  stop  not  short  of  that  renewal  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  in  you,  which  alone  can  prepare  a  fallen,  spiritually  dead 
creature  for  life  and  glory  eternal  ! 

III.  Thirdly,  I  am  to  inquire  why  these  particular  things  are 
counted  foolishness. 

To  say  that  this  is  occasioned  by  the  want  of  senses  exercised 
to  discern  the  application  and  efficacy  of  the  discoveries  of  the 
gospel,  would  be  leaving  the  subject  where  we  found  it,  and 
leaving  those,  also,  who  are  in  this  deplorable  state,  without  the 
help  and  counsel  provided  for  them.  It  is,  therefore,  to  the 
neglect  of  obvious  duty  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  favoured 
with  divine  revelation,  that  this  state  of  indifference  and  dead- 
ness  to  the  interests  of  hereafter,  is  to  be  ascribed.  That  such 
multitudes,  Gallio-like,  care  for  none  of  those  things,  and  the 
activity  of  rational  natures,  made,  and  formed,  and  furnished  to 
glorify  God  and  enjoy  him  for  ever,  are  content  to  famish  on 
the  husks  and  garbage  of  a  perishing  world,  are  content  to 
remain  in  the  darkness  and  hopelessness  of  the  things  that  are 
seen,  even  amid  the  bright  shining  of  the  light  of  life. 

Of  this,  the  true  cause  of  the  evil  and  the  just  answer  to  this 
inquiry,  the  proof,  I  trust,  will  be  evident  from  the  following 
considerations  : 

First,  if  God  hath  spoken  to  us,  and  we  are  in  possession 
of  his  will  and  directions,  the  undeniable  duty  of  every  rational 
being,  is,  to  acquaint  himself  with  that  will  and  to  follow  those 
directions. 

Secondly,  it  is  on  the  performance  of  this  duty  that  God 
hath  limited  his  blessing  in  the  growth  and  increase  of  spiritual 
help  and  power. 

The  first  consideration  is  so  self-evidently  true  as  to  meet  the 
unqualified  assent  of  all  who  hear  it :  and  it  follows,  undeniably, 
in  an  equal  degree,  that  whoever  does  not  carefully  consider 
and  follow  out  the  will  of  God,  either  denies  the  fact  of  a  revela- 
tion or  despises  the  revealer ;  and,  consequently,  cannot  expect 
any  of  the  spiritual  benefits  promised  to  faith  and  obedience. 
O  that  they  loere  ime,  that  they  understood  this,  that  they  loould 
consider  their  latter  end.  How  shall  we  escape,  if  ive  neglect  so 
great  salvation. 


70  FAITH    IN    GOD. 

The  second  consideration  is  equally  capable  of  proof,  and  of 
a  proof  not  only  derived  from  authority,  but  from  the  reason  of 
the  thing.  God  hath  no  need  of  the  sinful  man,  therefore  it  is 
by  grace  that  we  are  saved. 

God  so  loved  the  ivorld,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish  but  have  everlasting 
life.  The  mercies  of  redemption  and  the  means  of  grace,  there- 
fore, are  the  talents,  in  their  various  extent,  committed  to  our 
trust  on  the  declared  condition  of  improvement.  To  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  abundance  ;  but  from  him 
that  hath  not,  shall  be  taken  aioay  even  that  ivhich  he  hath. 

With  this  equitable  rule,  all  that  the  Saviour  of  the  world 
hath  taught  and  promised  is  in  perfect  agreement.  /  came  not 
to  destroy  men's  lives  but  to  save  them.  I  am  come  that  they  might 
have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly.  I  am  the 
light  of  the  world ;  he  that  follow eth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness, 
hut  shall  have  the  light  of  life.  He  that  believeth  on  me,  out  of  his 
belly  shall  floio  rivers  of  living  waters  ;  he  that  believeth  not  shall 
he  damned. 

From  all  which,  and  much  more  that  might  be  produced,  it 
must  be  evident  that  the  blessing  of  spiritual  illumination,  so 
essential  to  a  fallen  creature,  is  limited  on  the  previous  condi- 
tion of  our  faith  in  and  submission  to  the  revealed  will  of  God  ; 
nor  can  it  be  conceived  in  what  other  way  religion,  as  a  reason- 
able and  possible  duty,  can  be  addressed  to  moral  creatures  in  a 
state  of  reprieve  and  probation  for  eternity.  All  doubt  on  this 
point,  however,  is  happily  done  away  by  the  standing  declara- 
tion of  the  gospel — Ask  and  ye  shall  receive ;  seek  and  ye  shall 
find;  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you.  For,  says  our 
blessed  Lord,  and  happy  experience  confirms  the  truth,  every 
one  that  asketh,  receiveth ;  and  he  that  seeketh,  findeth ;  and  to  him 
that  knocketh,  it  shall  be  opened. 

Hence  it  must  be  evident,  and  I  pray  God  that  it  may  be  the 
effectual  conviction  of  every  soul  that  now  hears  me,  that  if  we 
are  natural  men  in  the  sense  here  used  by  the  apostle ;  if  we 
are  indifferent  to  the  high  discoveries  of  the  gospel ;  if  we  are 
careless  of  the  manifestation  of  God,  therein  made  to  the  faith 
and  observance  of  his  creatures  ;  if  the  course  and  occupation 


FAITH    IN    GOD.  7\ 

of  our  lives,  or  the  open  or  secret  tenour  of  our  thoughts,  show 
louder  than  words,  that  they  are  foolishness  unto  us  ;  it  must  be 
our  fault,  it  cannot  be  our  infirmity  ;  it  must  be  our  condemna- 
tion, it  cannot  be  our  excuse.  God  hath  done  all  that  is  neces- 
sary to  remove  our  natural  disability  for  spiritual  things ;  he 
hath  set  before  us  whatever  can  confirm  faith,  excite  hope,  or 
alarm  fear  in  rational  creatures  :  but  if  we  will  none  of  his 
ways,  if  we  will  be  wiser  than  God  in  the  things  of  God,  and 
risk  our  immortal  souls  on  the  unreasonable  venture,  what 
remains,  but  that  having  chosen  darkness  rather  than  light,  the 
way  of  life  shall  be  hid  from  us  for  ever.  For  if  any  man  have 
not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none  of  his;  neither  is  their  salva- 
tion in  any  other— for  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given 
amongst  men  xoherehy  toe  must  be  saved  only  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  J^azareth. 

I  have  now  to  conclude  with  some  remarks  on  the  conse- 
seqences  which  must  follow  to  those  who  remain  in  this  condi- 
tion. 

And  first,  it  must,  I  think,  be  evident  that  were  those 
consequences  confined  to  the  present  life,  they  are  worth  an 
exertion  to  be  avoided  ;  for  either  all  serious  thought  must  be 
excluded  or  thought  must  be  painful.  The  natural  man  differs 
but  little  from  the  brute,  and  that  difference  is  against  the  man. 
In  the  day  of  prosperity  and  enjoyment,  the  natural  man,  like  the 
ox  in  a  fat  pasture,  may  give  himself  up  to  every  delight  of  the 
carnal  mind,  and  drown  and  extinguish  the  voice  of  reason  and 
reflection  in  the  festivities  of  wantonness,  or  occupy  his  faculties 
exclusively  in  the  acquisitions  of  time  ;  but  in  the  day  of  adver- 
sity where  is  his  resource  ?  The  brute  has  no  anticipations— 
the  man  has.  As  his  prosperity  was  without  God,  so  is  his  adver- 
sity without  one  ray  of  comfort.  Thought  is  his  enemy  and 
reflection  his  torment,  because  he  perverts  his  distinguishing 
character  as  a  rational  being,  and  will  not  point  it  to  God.  But 
more  than  this  ;  it  is  a  sense  of  God,  of  his  undeserved  good- 
ness, of  the  wonders  of  his  love  in  the  gift  of  Jesus  Christ  for 
the  redemption  of  sinners,  which  gives  to  the  various  mercies  of 
his  providence  their  proper  character;  this  the  natural  man 
deprives  himself  of.     The  most  prosperous  and  happy  condition 


72  FAITH  IN  GOD. 

terminates  with  the  short  uncertainty  of  time  ;  the  natural  man 
cannot  look  beyond  it,  further  than  conjecture  ;  but  it  is  not  so 
with  adversity.  God,  in  aid  of  his  truth,  hath  planted  an 
impression  in  every  heart,  that  adversity  ends  not  with  this  life 
to  the  sinner.  A  certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment,  which 
he  cannot  shake  off  though  he  can  resist  it,  for  he  is  a  moral 
being  and  not  a  machine,  haunts  the  natural  man,  with  the  fear 
which  hath  torment ;  his  prosperity,  therefore,  is  unblessed — 
his  adversity  is  without  comfort.  If  more  than  this  is  the  portion 
of  the  natural  man,  of  the  man  who  hath  no  discernment  or 
desire  of  the  things  of  the  Spirit  op  God,  it  can  only  be  what 
he  has  in  common  with  the  beasts  that  perish. 

But,  secondly,  when  this  world  and  all  its  delusions  come  to 
close,  when  the  inevitable  sentence  to  which  all  must  submit 
makes  the  truth  of  God  victorious  over  all  the  vain  reasonings 
of  an  infidel  philosophy,  when  the  pride  of  opinion  can  no  longer 
bear  up  against  the  realities  which  this  hour  brings  forward — 
what  then,  my  hearers,  are  the  consequences  to  the  natural  man, 
to  the  man  for  whom  Christ  has  died  in  vain,  with  whom  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  striven  in  vain,  and  God  put  forth  the  whole 
extent  of  his  love,  for  salvation,  without  effect  1  Shall  I  attempt 
to  speak  of  them  1  No,  imagination  is  exhausted  and  expres- 
sion overwhelmed  under  the  awful  contemplation.  To  jour 
hearts,  to  your  consciences,  then,  I  refer  you  for  what  cannot 
be  uttered,  and  may  God  in  mercy  seal  his  truth  to  your  soul's 
health. 


SERMON  Vlf. 


SIN. 


Romans  vii.  13. 


'■  But  sill,  that  it  mi^rht  appear  sin,  working  death  in  me  by  that  wliich  is  good ; 
that  sin  by  the  commanduient  might  become  exceeding  suilul." 

That  there  is  a  principle  at  work  in  the  world  which  is  in 
opposition  to  the  reason  of  our  own  minds,  to  the  peace  and 
comfort  of  society,  and  to  individual  happiness,  has  in  every  age 
of  the  world  been  the  experience  and  the  acknowledgment  of 
all  descriptions  of  persons.  Heathen  philosophers  equally  with 
Christian  moralists  and  professors  of  religion,  have  united  in 
one  unvarying  testimony  to  a  state  of  disorder  in  the  moral 
world — the  mind  and  affections  of  man— as  plainly  marked  as 
that  which  is  displayed  in  the  world  called  natural.  This  priur 
ciple,  under  the  personification  of  a  power  or  agent  working  in 
us,  is  denominated  sin,  and  is  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures  as  the 
true  and  only  cause  of  all  the  disorder  and  misery  known  and 
suffered  in  this  world,  and  of  all  that  can  be  anticipated  by  the 
conscious  objects  of  its  influence  in  that  which  is  to  come. 

This  knowledge,  however,  of  the  cause  and  of  the  connexion 
of  the  state  of  disorder  in  the  natural  and  moral  world,  was  hid 
from  the  Heathen  philosopher.  He  could  conjecture  and 
reason,  and  an  occasional  gleam  from  traditionary  revelation 
would  bring  him  to  the  confines  of  the  truth  ;  but  certainty  and 
satisfaction  were  beyond  his  reach.  Alas  !  that  so  many 
Christian  moralists,  especially  the  more  modern  ones,  by  pre- 
ferring the  rush-light  of  human  reason  in  matters  beyond  their 
experience,  to  the  clear  and  decisive  discoveries  of  revealed 
truth,  should  be  in  no  better  case.  But  to  the  Christian,  and  to 
the  Christian  only  it  is  given,  to  trace  these  acknowledged  effects 
to  their  cause,  to  account  for  the  connexion  between  them,  to 
understand  their  bearing  upon  himself,  and  to  give  to  the  cause 

Vol.  U.—IO 


74  SIN. 

itself  its  true  and  genuine  character,  colour,  and  operation. 
And  happy  had  it  been  for  Christian  lands,  had  this  their  privi- 
lege and  advantage  been  duly  estimated  and  rightly  applied ; 
yea,  happy  will  it  be  for  that  Christian  land,  for  that  individual 
Christian,  who  will  yet  make  this  improvement  of  what  is  so 
freely  bestowed  upon  them. 

That  it  may  be  thus  considered  and  applied  by  that  portion 
of  Christian  people  who  are  now  present,  is  my  desire  and  de- 
sign. And,  as  we  cannot  rightly  appreciate  the  advantages  of 
revelation  and  the  obligations  of  religion,  without  considering 
deeply  what  it  is  that  has  rendered  revealed  religion  and  insti- 
tuted means  of  grace  necessary  to  us,  and  an  interposition  of 
heaven's  mercy  in  our  behalf,  whatever  is  calculated  to  bring 
our  thoughts  to  act  upon  so  essential  a  part  of  our  religious  and 
moral  condition,  must  be  helpful  to  us — must  be  profitable  to 
our  souls. 

To  this  end  nothing,  in  my  judgment,  can  contribute  so  effec- 
tually as  a  serious  consideration  of  the  nature,  influence,  and 
consequences  of  sin  as  a  component  part  of  our  fallen  frame, 
exerting  a  constraining  power  over  us,  and  operating  to  our 
ruin  now  and  for  ever.  And  though  this  is  a  subject  on  which 
most  will  suppose  that  they  need  nothing,  either  to  inform  or 
impress  them,  I  am  well  persuaded  of  the  contrary.  I  am  fully 
convinced,  that  there  is  no  one  subject,  religion  itself  excepted, 
on  which  there  are  such  vague  and  unsettled  notions,  or  on 
which  men  so  readily  content  themselves  with  admission  in  the 
gross,  and  with  disregard  in  the  particulars. 

What,  let  me  ask,  is  more  universally  admitted  as  existing 
and  operating  to  our  destruction  ?  And  yet,  how  few  in 
comparison,  are  engaged  in  breaking  its  chain  and  escaping 
from  its  snare  1  What  more  common  with  all  classes  of  men, 
even  with  those  who  make  the  service  of  sin  their  daily  occu- 
pation as  it  were,  than  to  admit  in  words,  its  dangerous  and 
destructive  nature,  and  yet  the  next  minute  go  in  pursuit 
of  some  of  its  miserable  deceits  1  What  more  common 
with  those  who  call  themselves  Christians,  with  professors  of 
religion,  than  to  find  even  them  parleying  and  tampering  with 
it  in  some  unlawful  conformity  to  the  world,  in  its  vain  and 


SIN.  75 

vicious  pursuits,  and  manifesting  little  or  no  anxiety  respecting 
its  influence  on  their  children,  their  friends,  and  their  neighbours, 
like  the  Pharisees  of  old,  limiting  sin  to  the  letter  of  the  law, 
and  if  not  forbidden  in  the  decalogue,  shutting  their  eyes  to  the 
spiritual  extent  of  that  holy  law. 

But  could  this  be  so,  were  the  real  malignity,  the  damning 
nature,  the  universal  influence,  and  the  dreadful  consequences  of 
sin  felt,  and  considered,  and  realized  as  they  ought  to  be*?  Could 
it  be  thus  if  the  very  purpose  of  a  law  against  sin  in  particulars, 
was  borne  in  mind  1  And  yet  Christians  are  instructed  that  by 
the  laic  is  the  knoicledge  of  sin ;  and  St.  Paul  tells  us  that  he  had 
not  known  lust,  that  is,  the  existence  of  sin  in  this  shape  within 
him,  except  the  laio  had  said,  Thou  shall  not  covet.  This  opened 
up  to  him  a  mine  of  iniquity  within,  far  beyond  the  specific  pro- 
hibitions of  the  law,  and  made  him  feel  what  a  wretched  man  he 
was  without  the  gospel.  This  explains  to  us  how  it  is  that  icith- 
out  the  law  sin  was  dead,  that  is,  dormant,  not  felt  in  its  stirrings. 
How,  without  the  law,  that  is,  the  law  not  recognised,  not  con- 
sidered, not  realized  in  the  extent  of  its  obligation,  and,  therefore, 
as  if  there  was  no  law,  St.  Paul  says,  he  was  once  alive,  at  one 
period  without  fear  or  apprehension  from  the  sanctions  of  the 
law  denounced  against  sin.  Under  this  view  we  come  to  under- 
stand how  it  is,  that  when  the  commandment  came,  when  the  law 
of  God  was  seen  in  the  purity  and  extent  of  its  precepts,  sin 
revived  and  he  died.  Sin,  before  dormant  and  quiet,  because  not 
interrupted  by  positive  prohibition,  was  thereby  roused  into 
active  resistance,  and  showed  by  prevailing  against  the  precept, 
that  however  holy,  and  just,  and  good  the  law  was  in  itself,  it 
was  nevertheless  powerless,  weak  through  the  flesh  to  subdue 
and  conquer  sin,  and,  therefore,  could  only  confirm  the  death 
due  to  and  denounced  against  it,  and  against  him  as  under  its 
power  and  dominion. 

In  this  experimental  delineation  of  the  awakenings  of  the 
Spirit  we  learn  to  understand,  my  brethren,  in  what  sense  the 
law  is  the  strength  of  sin.  How  it  comes  to  pass  that  prohibition 
actually  increases  the  desire  to  transgress,  and  stirs  up  the  carnal 
mind  to  resist  the  authority  and  the  reason  of  the  law,  and  the 
conscience  and  interest  of  the  sinner.  We  are  prepared  to  meet 


76 


SIN. 


the  apostle  in  the  question  preceding  the  text,  to  perceive  a  pur- 
pose in  the  law  itself  which,  otherwise,  we  should  not  have 
thought  of,  and  thus  to  find  the  law  our  schoolmaster,  to  bring 
us  to  Christ  for  that  grace,  without  which  sin  must  continue  its 
mastery  over  us  ;  shutting  us  out  forever  from  God,  and  deliver- 
ing us  over  to  his  wrath.  JVas,  then,  that  ivhich  is  good  made 
death  unto  me  ?  says  the  apostle.  Was  it  the  purpose  of  the  law 
of  God  to  increase  our  misery,  by  showing  the  utter  hopeless- 
ness of  fulfilling  its  requirements  and  escaping  its  penalty  1  God 
forbid.  No.  But  sin,  that  it  might  appear  sin,  icorking  death  in  me 
by  that  which  is  good,  that  sin  by  the  commandment  might  become 
exceeding  sinful — that,  being  shown  in  its  true  colours  by  an 
express  command  against  it,  the  guilt  of  its  commission  might 
be  aggravated,  and  men,  deterred  from  its  hateful  and  ruinous 
practice,  might  be  awakened  to  the  danger,  and  drawn  to  the 
only  remedy  against  its  power,  in  the  grace  of  God  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

The  text  being  thus  explained,  in  connexion  with  the  context, 
and  the  apparent  difficulty,  from  the  manner  of  expression, 
removed,  I  will  now  proceed  to  enforce  the  weighty  warning 
and  instruction  contained  in  it,  by  considering. 

First,  the  nature  of  sin. 

Secondly,  the  extent  of  its  influence. 

Thirdly,  the  consequences  both  present  and  future ;  and,  then, 

Close  with  an  application  of  the  whole. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  consider  the  nature  of  sin. 

Sin,  in  its  nature,  is  opposition  to  God,  actual  hatred  of  and 
enmity  to  his  purity  and  holiness.  It  must,  therefore,  be  the 
chief  evil,  and,  as  such,  the  abhorrence  of  the  Chief  Good.  No 
language  can  express  it  more  truly,  no  delineation  can  describe 
it  more  exactly,  or  enable  us  to  realize  more  fully  its  detestable 
qualities,  in  all  the  darkness  of  their  malignity. 

Again,  sin,  in  its  nature,  is  an  internal  principle,  seated  in  the 
heart. 

In  this  viewjf'sin  is  not  so  properly  an  act  or  series  of  actions, 
as  a  habit  or  disposition  of  the  soul.  We  are  told,  indeed,  in 
the  word  of  God,  that  sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law,  and  it  is 
so  most  certainly ;  but  it  is  this  in  such  wise,  as  the  breach  of 


SIN.  7T 

the  law  is  conclusive  evidence  of  the  sinful  principle  existing 
within  us.  Sin  and  transgression  stand  to  each  other  in  the 
relation  of  cause  and  eftcct ;  was  there  no  sinful  principle  there 
would  be  no  sinful  practice. 

This  may  be  illustrated  by  the  principle  which  obtains  in  the 
administration  of  civil  laws. 

In  the  case  of  unlawful  killing,  the  overt  act  of  murder  is 
evidence  of  the  malus  animus,  the  malice  aforethought,  which 
constitutes  the  crime.  In  like  manner  of  theft,  profaneness, 
and  any  other  forbidden  act.  Human  laws,  indeed,  concern 
themselves  mainly  to  repress  the  outward  action,  and  when  this 
is  not  committed,  they  have  no  operation.  The  divine  law,  on 
the  contrary,  takes  cognizance  of  the  intention,  the  disposition 
which  gives  birth  to  the  action ;  it  most  pointedly  forbids  and 
condemns  the  sinful  act,  but  reserves  a  deeper  condemnation 
for  the  hostile  principle  to  God  and  goodness  thereby  mani- 
fested. 

Once  more,  sin  in  its  nature  is  a  unit,  and  is,  therefore, 
independent  of  more  or  less  in  the  outward  evidences  of  its 
existence.  It  is  not  the  number  or  the  magnitude  of  transgres- 
sions which  constitutes  sin,  these  are  only  the  evidences  of  the 
greater  or  less  degree  of  the  power  it  has  over  us.  The  princi- 
ple of  opposition  to  God  is  as  truly  manifested  by  one  as  by  one 
hundred  trangressions,  just  as  one  murder  as  completely  deter- 
mines the  presence  of  malice,  as  any  number  could  do  ;  not 
that  the  degree  of  guilt  from  one  transgression,  either  in  the 
sight  of  God  or  man,  is  as  great  as  from  many,  but  that  it  is 
sufficient  evidence  of  the  fact.  And  this  is  the  ground  and  the 
reason  of  the  Scripture  declaration,  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole 
law  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  consider  the  extent  of  its  influence. 

Alas  !  my  hearers,  where,  in  the  boundary  of  this  poor  world, 
shall  we  find  the  spot  free  from  the  influence  of  sin  1  We  shift 
from  place  to  place,  we  change  occupation  and  pursuit,  we  flee 
to  new  and  unexplored  countries  ;  but  we  cannot  escape  from 
ourselves, — sin  goes  with  us — we  carry  it  in  our  hearts — it 
follows  us  like  a  shadow.  Alas  !  that  it  should  be  so  favourite 
a  companion. 


78  SIN. 

Its  influence,  then,  may  be  pronounced  universal.  To  love 
it  in  some  shape  is  the  taint  and  infection  it  hath  brought  upon 
our  nature  ;  to  yield  to  its  temptations,  yea,  to  hunt  out  its 
short-lived  perishing  pleasures ;  madly  to  pluck  and  eat  this 
forbidden  fruit  is  the  pregnant  evidence  of  its  all-pervading 
presence. 

What  stage  of  our  being  is  free  from  its  influence  1  Alas  ! 
before  we  can  fairly  be  considered  accountable  beings,  its  buds 
appear,  its  blossoms  open,  its  fruit  forms.  It  takes  the  start  of 
reason,  and,  too  often,  it  keeps  the  track.  When  reason, 
lagging  behind,  comes  up,  what  can  it  do  with  this  mighty  foe, 
who  holds  the  reins  and  drives  the  passions  headlong  to  present 
enjoyment.  Its  powers  are  weakened,  its  perceptions  dark- 
ened, its  will  perverted  by  the  very  adversary  it  has  to  hold  in 
check ;  it  can  see  the  good,  but  how  to  do  it  it  finds  not ;  it 
may  say,  drive  not  so  madly,  but  the  law  in  the  members  is 
stronger  than  the  law  of  the  mind  ;  it  may  say  stop,  and  stop  it 
may  in  one  direction,  secure  of  another  in  which  its  influence, 
though  less  obvious,  will  be  equally  sure.  Oh  !  what  a  Proteus 
is  this  ever  present  enemy,  even  with  the  aid  of  divine  revelation, 
by  which  all  its  deceits  are  exposed,  all  its  dangers  declared, 
and  through  which  help  is  offered  against  this  enemy.  How 
feeble  and  powerless  is  this  boasted  defence  against  the  influence 
of  sin  ?  If  this  is  not  so,  how  comes  it  to  pass  that  so  many  of 
those  now  before  me,  both  men  and  women,  who  have  reason, 
who  have  revelation,  who  have  warning,  are  yet  the  servants  of 
sin  in  some  of  its  multifarious  deceits  ?  Is  there  no  opposition 
to  God  in  the  hearts  of  those  who,  instead  of  remembering  their 
Creatoit  in  the  days  of  their  youth,  rush  into  every  folly  and 
vanity  which  the  world  spreads  before  them,  and  drown  the 
care  of  the  soul  in  the  vortex  of  dissipation  1  Is  there  no  enmity 
to  the  purity  and  holiness  of  God  in  those  who  sow  to  the  flesh, 
and,  in  the  lusts  of  uncleanness  and  the  brutishness  of  intempe- 
rance, set  reason  and  religion  both  at  defiance  1  Is  there  no 
mark  of  the  carnal  mind  in  those  who  cooly  and  decently  labour 
and  strive  for  a  portion  in  this  life ;  good,  orderly,  moral,  church 
or  meeting  going  people — God  not  in  all  their  thoughts — no  fear 
of  him  before  their  eyes — no  love  of  him  in  their  hearts — who 


SIN.  79 

never  give  an  hour  to  his  service  beyond  the  heartless  formality 
of  a  Sunday  forenoon  1  Yea,  even  in  the  professing  world,  is 
there  no  seasoning  of  sin  in  drawing  near  to  God  with  the  lips 
while  the  heart  is  far  from  him — in  conforming  to  the  world — 
in  narrowing  duty — in  neglect  of  prayer — in  selfishness — in 
spiritual  pride — in  separations  and  divisions  1  Above  all,  what 
but  the  influence  of  sin  can  make  professing  parents  negligent 
of  the  welfare  of  their  children's  spiritual  concerns,  or  be 
content  with  a  cold  and  occasional  admonition  1  Oh  !  loretched 
creatures  that  ice  are  !  who  shall  deliver  us  from  the  body  of  this 
death  ?  O,  that  I  could  hear  the  groan  echoing  from  every 
heart :  for  there  is  deliverance,  thanks  be  to  God,  there  is 
deliverance  from  the  reigning  power  of  this  tyrant ;  but  it  is  not  in 
man  ;  it  is  not  in  any  effort  of  his  reason,  nor  in  any  exertion  of 
his  own  fallen,  sin-infected  powers.  God,  even  the  Almighty, 
must  put  forth  the  might  of  a  new  creation  to  quicken  us  into 
life;  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  ivho  was  made  sin 
for  us  that  ice  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him^ 
alone  can  stay  the  plague  and  create  a  new  heart,  and  renew  a 
right  spirit  within  us  :  and  the  law  of  God  with  its  eternal 
sanctions  ;  and  the  revelation  of  God  with  its  precious  promises  ; 
and  the  love  of  Christ  with  its  winning  attractions,  are  all  set 
forth  with  divine  evidence,  to  awaken  and  encourage,  and 
engage  us  to  seek  the  help  that  is  in  him.  Faith  is  the  talisman 
which  strips  the  mask  from  sin,  snatches  the  reins  from  her 
maddening  hand,  and  delivers  them  over  to  the  Spirit  of 
God,  under  whose  holy  discipline  the  power  of  sin  is  broken, 
the  influence  of  sin  is  defeated  ;  old  things  are  done  away — a 
new  life  begins,  and  the  'path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining  light, 
that  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.  Yet,  mighty 
as  is  this  help,  freely  as  it  is  offered,  and  great  as  is  our  neces- 
sity, behold,  once  more,  how  great  and  how  extended  is  the 
influence  of  sin.  Let  one  hour  pass,  and  where  will  these 
truths  be  which  now  fall  so  heavy  on  your  consciences  *?  Let 
one  week  pass,  and  to  how  many  of  you,  whose  eyes  are  now 
cast  down  under  the  home  truth  of  God's  faithful  word,  shall  I 
be  as  one  that  hath  a  pleasant  voice  and  can  play  icell  on  an 
instrument,  and  that  truth  itself  cast  down  under  the  dominion  of 


80  SIN. 

sin  1     Again,  I  say,   Oh !  wretched  men  thai  we  are,  who  shall 
deliver  us  from  the  body  of  this  death? 

That  we  may  in  earnest  seek  this  deliverance,  I  will  now  con- 
sider and  point  out,  as  was  proposed, 

III.  Thirdly,  the  consequences  of  sin,  both  present  and 
future. 

That  to  sin,  pursued  and  followed  in  some  shape  by  ourselves 
or  others,  we  owe  all  the  distresses  and  miseries  of  this  life,  is 
alike  the  witness  of  revelation  and  the  result  of  experience.  God 
has  laid  his  curse  upon  sin,  and  sin,  in  the  malignity  of  her 
revenge,  transfers  her  curse  upon  man,  the  favoured  creature 
of  God.  Fools  and  blind,  that  we  are,  to  yield  ourselves  the 
servants  of  this  deceiver,  against  knowledge,  against  warning, 
against  experience,  against  help  and  means,  freely  provided  and 
held  forth,  against  the  fear  of  hell  and  the  hope  of  heaven. 

Broken  health,  ruined  fortunes,  misery  and  crime,  are  the 
bitter  fruits  with  which  sin  repays  her  votaries  in  the  present 
life.  And,  though  there  may  be  some  who,  to  appearance, 
escape  these  consequences,  and  in  success  and  enjoyment  glitter 
above  their  fellow  servants,  yet  are  these  but  exceptions  which 
confirm  the  general  rule,  and  show  more  fearfully  in  the  end, 
on  what  a  slippery  steep  they  stand  ;  for  it  is  but  for  a  season. 
Sooner  or  later  the  blast  overtakes  them,  the  sand  gives  way 
under  them,  their  master  deceives  them  and  pays  their  faithful 
services  with  his  only  wages — shame  and  contempt,  poverty  and 
nakedness,  remorse  and  despair,  disease  and  death. 

But  were  outward  calamity  and  suffering  all  we  had  to  dread 
in  yielding  to  the  deceits  of  sin,  though  a  dear  price  for  its  perish- 
ing gratifications,  the  folly  and  madness  of  the  choice  would  not 
be  so  great ;  there  might  be  a  sort  of  balance  struck  between 
the  price  and  the  purchase,  as  concerns  the  present  life,  and 
the  arithmetic  of  the  sinner  would  cast  it  up  in  his  own  favour. 
When,  however,  we  must  take  into  the  account  the  inward 
misery  that  follows  in  the  accusations  of  conscience,  the  gnaw- 
ings  of  guilt,  the  fear  that  hath  torment,  the  anticipations  of 
judgment,  an  offended  God  and  a  rejected  Saviour,  what  is  there 
in  the  utmost  range  of  sinful  enjoyment  to  balance  this  mental 
agony  1  Oh  !  how  gladly  would  the  sufferer  give  it  all  back  for  one 


SIN.  81 

moments  ease,  for  a  single  hour  of  peace  from  the  gnawings  of 
the  worm  that  never  dies.  But  there  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God, 
to  the  wicked. 

There  is  yet  another  consequence  of  sin  in  the  present  life, 
my  hearers,  more  common,  more  destructive,  and  not  as  much 
considered  as  it  ought  to  be,  which  I  will  mention,  and  that  is 
the  effect  produced  by  negligence  and  delay  in  forsaking  the 
ways  of  sin.  Now  this  is  universally  a  deadening  of  the  feelings, 
a  hardening  of  the  heart,  a  callousness  of  the  conscience,  almost 
hopeless  to  any  religious  impression.  This  is  a  condition  more 
dangerous  than  even  that  of  the  outbreaking  profligate  sinner, 
inasmuch  as  the  one  may  be  alarmed  and  arrested  by  the  very 
madness  of  his  folly,  while  the  other  dreams  on  under  the  sleep 
of  sin ;  and  as  this  is  the  case  with  the  more  orderly  and  decent 
part  of  society,  who  give  some  countenance  to  religion,  but  go 
no  further,  it  is  both  more  common  and  more  destructive  to 
souls  than  any  other  deceit. 

If  I  were  to  name  the  most  general  and  destructive  sin  in  my 
knowledge,  I  would  at  once  name  procrastination  ;  the  putting 
off  till  to-morrow,  the  neglect  of  warnings — the  being  false  to 
the  voice  of  conscience.  And  as  the  very  act  is  and  ought 
to  be  full  proof  that  we  prefer  sin,  that  sin  reigns,  no  other  con- 
sequence can  follow,  than  deeper  subjection  to  its  power,  and 
greater  estrangement  from  God.  What,  let  me  ask  this  congre- 
gation of  Christian  people,  ought  to  be  the  course  of  every  one 
of  them,  under  the  information  and  grace  of  the  gospel  ]  Ought 
they  to  sit  still,  folding  their  hands  like  the  sluggard,  and  waiting 
passively  to  be  converted  1  Ought  they  to  continue  in  the 
active  service  of  sin,  in  the  miserable  delusion  of  repenting  here- 
after 1  Or  ought  every  one  of  them  to  be  up  and  doing  now, 
while  it  is  called  to-day  ;  not  conferring  with  flesh  and  blood, 
but  breaking  off  their  sins  by  repentance,  and  their  iniquities 
by  righteousness,  labouring  and  striving  to  make  their  calling 
and  election  sure  1  Can  one  hour's  delay  in  such  a  case  be 
justified  1  And  yet,  who  among  you  will  act  upon  the  verdict 
conscience  now  brings  in  against  yourselves,  before  Goo  the 
Judge  1  Alas  !  alas  !  that,  turn  which  way  we  will,  the  influence 
of  sin  meets  us,  and  casts  its  damning  veil  over  truth  and  reason^ 

Vol.  II.— 11 


82 


SIN. 


and  conscience  and  revelation.  But  will  this  excuse  us  1  No, 
my  dear  hearers,  it  will  rather  condemn  us.  For  it  is  the  very 
point  heaven  is  in  conflict  with  ;  which  Christ  died  to  save  us 
from,  and  which  the  grace  of  God  is  given  us  to  overcome. 

Put  forth  an  effort,  then,  against  this  enemy.  With  prayer 
for  grace  make  trial  of  the  means  which  God  has  provided  ia 
Christ  Jesus,  and  promised  to  bless.  You  owe  it  to  the  good- 
ness of  God  ;  you  owe  it  to  the  love  of  Christ  ;  you  owe  it  to 
your  own  souls.  For,  says  unchangeable  truth,  except  ye  repent 
ye  shall  perish,  which  is  the  future  consequence  of  sin  unrepented, 
unforsaken. 

That  the  enemy  of  God  should  be  for  ever  shut  out  from  his 
presence,  we  are  prepared,  by  natural  equity,  to  acknowledge 
and  feel  to  be  just.  The  sinner,  then,  continuing  such,  must 
surrender  all  hope  of  happiness  hereafter.  Yet  sin  the  deceiver 
will  whisper,  be  not  afraid,  God  is  merciful — Christ  has  died, 
you  will  escape  somehow — at  any  rate  you  can  repent  here- 
after. 

That  the  rebel,  lying  at  the  mercy  of  Omnipotence,  who 
rejects  offered  mercy,  and  spurns  from  him  pardon  and  reward, 
deserves  punishment  in  its  severest  form,  our  own  sense  of  justice 
pronounces  right.  The  sinner,  then,  continuing  such,  under  the 
offered  mercy,  pardon,  and  grace  of  the  gospel,  passes  his  own 
sentence,  and  must  go  away  into  perdition  by  the  judgment  of 
his  own  lips.  For  to  be  for  ever  shut  out  from  God,  and  endure 
the  infliction  of  his  wrath,  is  perdition  ;  yet  the  enemy  of  God 
and  man  will  argue,  as  in  the  beginning,.j/e  shall  not  surely  die  ; 
God  will  not  punish  a  finite  offence  with  an  infinite  punishment ; 
sin  is  not  that  hateful  thing  the  ministers  of  Christ  represent  it, 
but  a  thing  to  be  desired,  which  will  add  to  your  present  happi- 
ness, enlarge  the  sphere  of  your  knowledge,  and  extend  your 
experience  of  life.  And  sits  there  the  man  before  me  whom 
the  enemy  has  not  encountered  in  this  guise  1  Sits  there  the 
man  or  woman  before  me,  who  has  not  held  this  parley  with  sin, 
and  yielded  to  this  sophistry,  and  put  forth  the  rebellious  hand 
and  plucked  and  eaten  of  this  forbidden  fruit  ?  And  sits  there, 
then,  one  before  me  who  has  not  incurred  the  penalty  denounced 
against  sin  by  the  law  of  God  1 — The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die. 


SIN.  83 

And  what  constitutes  the  death  of  the  soul  1  Not  extinction 
of  being — the  image  of  God's  eternity  must  needs  be  immortal, 
it  cannot  die  in  that  sense  in  which  the  moital  body  is  resolved 
into  its  original  dust.  The  death  of  the  soul,  then,  niust  consist 
in  privation  of  that  good  for  which  it  was  formed,  in  suffering 
that  evil  which  it  has  wilfully  followed,  and  in  enduring  that 
punishment  which  is  set  forth  in  the  torments  of  endless  despair 
and  everlasting  burnings,  loliere  the  icorm  dieth  not  and  thejire  is 
not  quenched. 

Now,  my  friends,  have  you  ever  tried  to  realize  perdition  under 
any  shape  1  Have  you  ever  reflected  on  an  eternity  of  suffering, 
measured  in  its  degree  only  by  the  unlimited  power  of  Omni- 
potence, and  in  its  duration,  by  the  capacity  of  an  immortal 
soul,  in  a  body  rendered  imperishable  to  this  very  end  ?  O,  if 
you  never  have,  let  what  has  now  been  said  awaken  you  to  the 
solemn  meditation,  and  lead  you  to  a  profitable  apphcation  of 
this  warning,  and  of  the  deliverance  within  your  reach. 

To  the  conscience,  to  the  reason,  to  the  experience,  then,  of 
every  soul  now  present  let  me  appeal. 

Is  this  testimony  of  God's  word,  a  true  and  faithful  witness 
on  the  subject  before  us  1  Do  reason,  and  experience,  and  con- 
science, all  unite  in  confirming  this  to  be  the  true  condition  of 
fallen  man — carnal,  sold  under  sin.  Are  we  all  conscious  of  a 
law  in  our  members,  \oarring  against  the  law  of  our  minds  ?  Have 
we  the  experience,  that  when  we  ivould  do  good  evil  is  present 
with  us  ?  Do  we  not  see  the  good,  and  approve  of  the  good, 
and  yet  find  not  how  to  do  it  ? 

And  is  not  this  sufficient  to  convince  us  that  there  is  an  enemy 
within,  which  must  be  dispossessed  before  the  divine  image  can 
be  renewed  in  our  hearts  1  Is  it  not  of  sufficient  weight  to 
interest  and  engage  every  being  capable  of  thought,  in  this 
spiritual  contest  1  Awake,  then,  thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise  from 
the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light.  Awake,  and  look  thy 
condition  in  the  face.  Be  no  longer  blinded  by  the  deceitfulness 
of  sin,  but  learn  the  full  extent  of  this  mighty  undoing — that 
Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified,  may  be  the  anchor  of  hope 
to  thy  soul.  He  came  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  him- 
self.    He  came  to  purchase  mercy  and  grace  for  sinners  penitent 


84  SIN. 

and  believing.     He  came  to  destroy  death,  and  him  that  had  the 
power  of  death,  and  having  finished  the  vi^ork  he  had  under- 
taken for  us  men,  and  for   our  salvation,  he  calls  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  to  come  unto  him  and  be  saved.  To-day,  then,  if  ye  will 
hear  his  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts.     Think  not  lightly  of  that 
vi^hich  cost  the  Son  of  God  his  life,  to  stay  the  sentence  gone  forth 
against  it,  and  purchase  a  reprieve  for  sinners.     Trifle  not  with 
the  mortal  disease   which  rankles  in  every  fibre  of  soul  and 
body  with  the  contagion  of  eternal  death — but  come  to  the 
great  physician  of  souls,  who  alone  can  arrest  its  progress  and 
deprive  it  of  its  virulence.     Come  to  the  fountain  opened  for 
sin  and  uncleanness  in  the  blood  of  Christ,  which  taketh  away 
the  sins  of  the  world.     Come  to  the  grace  of  the  gospel,  which 
renews  the  heartand  reforms  the  life.  Hear  his  faithful  promise — 
sin  shall  not  have  dominion  overy  you — and  let  it  impart  strength 
to  the  sin-sick  soul,  to  pray  and  not  to  faint.     Hear  his  awful 
threatening — As  for  these  mine  enemies,  ivho  would  not  have  me 
to  reign  over  them,  bring  them  hither,  and  slay  them  before  my  face; 
and  let  it  startle  every  delaying,  parleying  sinner,  to  count  the 
cost  at  which  he  is  trifling  with  eternity.      0  that  they  were  wise, 
that  they  understood  this,  that  they  loould  consider  their  latter  end' 
Merciful  God  unstop  their  ears,  unclose   their  eyes,  take  the 
veil  from  their  hearts,  that  they  may  learn  the  things  which  make 
for  their  peace,  before  they  are  for  ever  hid  from  their  eyes,  and 
iniquity  prove  their  everlasting  ruin. 
% 


SERMON  VIII. 


SIN    AND    DEATH. 


Romans  v.  12. 


"  Wherefore  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin ;  and  so 
death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have  sinned." 

Had  heavenly  wisdom  never  declared  it  to  us,  the  cause  of 
that  sin  and  misery  here,  and  of  that  eternal  condemnation  here- 
after, to  which  we  are  all  liable,  my  hearers,  must  for  ever  have 
remained  hid  from  us,  and  aggravated  the  sufferings  of  time,  by 
the  hopelessness  of  any  relief  from  them,  even  by  the  release 
of  death.     And  it  is  but  to  consider  the  close  connexion  of 
what  is  revealed  with  our  original  inward  impressions — the  bear- 
ing it  has  upon  our  actual  condition,  and  the  universal  relief  it 
administers  to  our  most  pressing  anxieties,  to  endear  to  our 
hearts  the  comfortable  and  blessed  light  which  the  gospel  sheds 
over  the  dreary   scene  of  this  prison-house  of  sinners.     I  say 
universal  relief,  for  even  the  sinner  himself,  though  at  war  with 
God  and  the  word  of  his  grace,  yet  by  a  perversion  without  a 
parallel,  takes  comfort,  from  the  discoveries  therein  made,  against 
the  horror  and  despair  which  must  otherwise  haunt    every 
moment  of  cool  reflection.     And  I  appeal  to  the  law  written  in 
the  heart  of  every  sinner  present,  whether  he  is  not  thereby 
condemned  already  ;  and  to  the  knowledge  which  his  education 
in  a  Christian  land  has  given  him  of  Jesus  Christ,  whether 
he  makes  him  not  the  minister  of  sin,  by  a  loose,  inconsiderate 
expectation,  that  notwithstanding  his  heart  condemns  him,  and 
the  law  of  God  condemns  him,  and  the  gospel  of  Christ  con- 
demns him,  yet  somehow  or  another,  God's  mercy  will  excuse 
and  acquit  him  at  the  judgment  of  the  great  day. 

If  this  be  true — and  I  fear  not  the  answer  that  can  be  given 
to  it — it  confirms  the  leading  truth  of  revelation,  set  forth  in 
my  text,  of  the  fallen,  ruined  condition  of  our  nature,  of  the 


86 


SIN    AND    DEATH. 


misery  of  our  state,  as  aliens  from  God,  and  enemies  to  his 
purity  and  holiness,  and  of  the  hopelessness  of  our  prospects 
from  any  thing  in  ourselves.  For  surely  that  person  who  sees 
the  good,  yet  finds  not  how  to  do  it,  who  does  the  evil  which  the 
law  of  his  own  mind  and  the  law  of  God  alike  condemn  him  for, 
and,  in  such  circumstances,  turns  with  contempt  and  disgust  from 
the  offer  of  grace  and  mercy  procured  for  him  hy  the  merits  of 
another,  must  have  lost  the  original  character  impressed  on  him 
by  his  Creator. 

Could  this  be  doubted,  the  prevalence  of  the  self-righteous 
principle  in  fallen  man  would  confirm  it ;  than  which,  the 
pride  which  ruins  us,  never  sent  forth  a  more  destructive  scion — 
for  it  consists  in  that  presumptuous  sense  of  his  own  worthiness, 
of  the  goodness  of  his  heart,  of  the  moral  rectitude  of  his  hfe, 
which  betrays  the  sinner  into  meeting  the  requirements  of  God's 
holy  law,  without  a  shield  from  that  infinite  justice  which 
demands,  for  every  infraction  of  its  purity,  the  tremendous  vindi- 
cation of  eternal  death.  And  it  is  at  once  a  curious,  instructive, 
and  humbling  exercise,  to  trace  the  workings  of  it  in  the  heart, 
to  consider  how  it  prevails  by  the  flattery  of  its  approaches  • 
how  it  wards  off  or  disarms  the  testimony  of  the  sinner's  own 
heart  to  the  guilt  of  his  life,  balancing  many  directly  sinful 
actions  by  one  or  more  real  virtues  or  amiable  traits  of  consti- 
tutional character. 

It  is  true,  will  it  say,  you  are  profane  in  your  ^conversation, 
but  it  is  only  habit,  there  is  no  malignity  in  your  heart ;  you  are 
lewd  in  your  conduct,  but  you  are  just  in  your  dealings  and 
true  to  your  word  ;  you  doubt  whether  you  love  God,  but  you 
show  that  you  do  so  in  the  best  sense,  for  you  are  friendly, 
liberal,  and  humane — you  are  charitable  to  the  poor,  and 
charity,  you  know,  covers  the  multitude  of  sins.  There  is  no 
occasion  for  uneasjness  if  persons  of  your  correct  deportment 
are  in  danger  of  damnation.  Who,  then,  can  be  saved  1  And 
thus  are  thousands  content  to  be  hoodwinked  by  the  ruinous 
sophistry,  that  because  they  are  not  the  veriest  profligates  that 
disgrace  human  nature,  they  are,  therefore,  in  a  safe  way  of 
salvation,  and  this  in  the  very  teeth  of  the  misgivings  of  their 
own  hearts,  that  all  is  not  right  for  eternity. 


SIN    AND    DEATH.  87 

But  should  these  misgivings  of  mind  be  happily  of  a  deeper 
and  more  hopeful  nature,  so  as  not  to  suffer  them  to  rest  satis- 
fied with  such  commonplace  defences  ;  this  evil  spirit  has  still 
further  resources  of  the  same  description.  Should  the  sinner 
really  admit  that  he  is  such,  it  can  tell  him  that  we  are  all 
sinners  in  the  sight  of  God  ;  that  as  fallen  creatures  we  cannot 
be  otherwise  ;  that  God  does  not  expect  or  require  perfection 
from  such;  that  he  has  given  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  to  atone 
for  our  sins,  and  supply  all  the  deficiencies  of  our  frail  and 
imperfect  endeavours  ;  that  he  only  requires  us  to  be  sorry  for 
our  sins,  to  confess  them,  and  trust  in  him  for  the  pardon  of 
them.  And  thus  do  multitudes  stifle  the  convictions  of  a  better 
spirit,  and  settle  down  upon  the  sandy  foundation  of  their  own 
righteousness,  as  far  as  it  will  go,  and  the  mercy  of  God,  with 
or  without  Jesus  Christ,  as  it  happens,  for  the  balance.  But, 
all  this  while,  what  God  himself  hath  declared  is  unheeded ;  his 
acknowledged  word  lies  unopened,  unconsulted  ;  his  clear  and 
express  testimony  that  there  is  salvation  for  the  race  of  Adam 
only  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whom  God  hath  made  to  be  sin 
for  us,  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  0/  God  in  him, 
and  that  the  justice  of  God  can  no  otherwise  harmonize  with 
his  mercy,  in  the  justification  even  of  a  penitent  sinner,  than  as 
that  sinner  is  found  united  in  Christ  by  a  living  faith,  is  wholly 
diregarded. 

Now  let  me  ask  this  congregation  of  Christian  people,  do  not 
those  who  thus  act  under  the  known  and  dread  alternative  of 
eternal  glory  or  everlasting  misery,  set  their  seal  to  the  truth  of 
the  doctrine  contained  in  my  text,  and  demonstrate,  not  merely 
the  fact  as  revealed  in  the  word  of  God,  but  the  desperate  and 
deceitful  nature  of  the  malady  under  which  we  all  labour,  and 
from  which  a  h^eavenly  physician  alone  can  recover  us. 

But  as  they  that  are  whole,  or  think  themselves  so,  can  hardly 
be  persuaded  to  apply  to  the  means  of  help  and  healing,  and  as 
no  danger  is  so  great  as  that  which  really  impends  over  us,  but 
is  neither  seen  or  regarded,  I  shall  endeavour,  with  God's  good 
help  and  blessing,  so  to  apply  the  text  as  to  demonstrate  from 
the  express  declarations  of  God's  word,  from  the  confessions 
and  acknowledgments  of  all  holy  men  in  all  ages,  and  from  the 


88  SIN    AND    DEATH. 

actual  condition  of  all  present,  that  there  is  nothing  in  us  to 
warrant  our  meeting  the  judgment  of  God  in  our  righteousness, 
or  to  propitiate  his  favour  for  our  sins  and  imperfections. 

Wherefore,  as  by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  loorld  and  death 
by  sin ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men  for  that  all  have  sinned. 

I.  First,  the  express  declarations  of  God's  word. 

The  Holy  Ghost  who  inspired  the  writing  of  the  Scriptures 
of  our  faith,  is  in  nothing  more  earnest  than  to  do  away  all 
occasion  for  pride  and  vain  glory  in  the  creature.  And  this,  1 
am  persuaded,  from  the  knowledge  that  of  all  our  other  vices,  it 
is  the  most  deeply  rooted  in  human  nature,  and  the  most  ruinous 
to  our  souls.  The  book  of  God,  accordingly,  abounds  with 
most  pointed  lessons  against  the  fatal  consequences  of  this 
inveterate  principle,  and  to  teach  us  that  humility  which  is  the 
only  entrance  to  all-saving  knowledge,  sets  before  us  the  lowly 
original  of  our  nature.  The  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust 
of  the  ground.  And  when  sin  had  deprived  him  of  the  image  of 
God  impressed  upon  this  dust ;  when  rebellion  had  driven  him 
out  from  the  presence  of  his  Maker,  condemned  to  toil  and 
labour,  exposed  to  sorrow  and  suffering,  disease  and  death,  his 
sentence  was  so  expressed  as  to  remind  him,  would  he  but  hear 
it,  of  his  lowly  origin.  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat 
bread  till  thou  return  to  the  ground :  for  out  of  it  wert  thou  taken  : 
for  dust  thou  art  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  return.  Here,  as  in  a 
glass,  my  friends,  we  may  see  our  humble  origin,  and  learn  how 
much  lower  sin  hath  degraded  us ;  here  we  may  understand  that 
pride  was  not  made  for  man ;  that  however  rich  or  great,  or 
noble  or  wise,  it  is  in  fact  but  earth  and  dust  in  its  short  progress 
to  dust  again  ;  that  however  fair  or  beauteous  or  lovely,  it  is  but 
a  clod  of  the  valley  clothed  with  flowers,  which  shall  wither  and 
fade  like  the  grass  of  the  field  ;  and  that  however  imposing  the 
exterior  may  be,  if  not  quickened  and  renewed  by  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  the  greatest  and  the  fairest  among  us  is  not  only  the  prey 
of  death  but  outcast  from  God  and  fuel  for  everlasting  burnings. 

But  it  is  in  the  effect  of  sin  upon  the  soul  that  the  word  of 
God  is  most  express  in  pointing  out  its  deadly  consequences — 
that  it  separated  it  for  ever  from  all  communion  and  intercourse 
with  its  maker — that  it  obliterated  every  divine  and  heavenly 


SIN    AND    DEATH.  89 

impression  stamped  on  it  by  its  Creator,  when  it  came  forth  at 
his  bidding  very  good,  to  inhabit  the  body  prepared  for  it ;  and 
though  immortal  in  its  nature,  became  so  depraved  and  pervert- 
ed as  to  relish  only  the  perishing  delights  of  time  and  sense. 
Hear  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  this  humbling  truth. 
God  saw  that  the  toickedness  of  man  ivas  great  in  the  earthy  and 
that  every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his  heart  loas  only  evil  con- 
tinually.     The  earth  also  was  corrupt  before  God,  and  the  earth 
^was  filled  withviolence;  for  all  flesh  had  corrupted  his  way  upon  the 
earth.     The  Lord  looked  down  from  heaven  upon  the  children  of 
men,  to  see  if  there  were  any  that  did  understand,  and  seek  God. 
Every  one  of  them  is  gone  back,  they  are  altogether  become  filthy, 
there  is  none  that  doeth  good,  no  not  one.   There  is  no  fear  of  God 
before  their  eyes.      The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart  there  is  no  God. 
Thou  thoughtest  that  I  was  altogether  such  an  one  as  thyself,  but  I 
will  reprove  thee,  and  set  thy  wickedness  in  order  before  thine  eyes. 
Thus,  before  the  flood,  and  under  the  Old  Testament  dispensation 
after  it,  is  there  one  unvarying  testimony  to  the  inherent  depra- 
vity of  fallen  man  ;  and  the  history  we  have  of  his  conduct,  both 
in  the  Scriptures  and  elsewhere,  prove  that  it  is  a  true  and  faith- 
ful witness. 

But,  is  there  no  difference,  it  may  be  asked,  under  the  gospel, 
under  the  grace  and  truth  which  came  by  Jesus  Christ  ?  Alas  ! 
no.  He  is  yet  the  same  creature,  sprung  from  the  same  cor- 
rupt root,  and  brings  with  him  into  the  world  the  same  mortal 
taint  and  infection.  Hear  him  who  knew  what  is  in  man,  and 
poured  out  his  soul  unto  death  to  redeem  him  from  eternal 
death.  There  is  none  good  but  one,  that  is  God.  That  which  is 
born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh.  Except  a  man  be  born  again  he  cannot 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against 
God,  for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed  can  be. 
The  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  GoD,/or 
they  are  foolishness  unto  him,  neither  can  he  knoiv  them,  because  they 
are  spiritually  discerned^  Jill  have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the 
glory  of  God.  Now  let  me  ask,  are  these  the  true  sayings  of 
God  %  If  they  are,  their  influence  is  this  moment  at  work  in 
this  congregation,  and  the  spirit  of  every  self-righteous  sinner 
present  rises  against  them,  and  is  contriving  to  elude  the  verdict 
Vol.  n.— 13 


90 


SIN    AND    DEATH. 


of  conscience  in  their  favour.  But  you  do  it  at  your  peril,  for 
it  proves  the  very  point  I  am  striving  to  bring  home  to  your 
hearts.  O  that  God  would  be  pleased  to  open  them,  that  the 
truth  may  not  prove  the  savour  of  death  unto  death. 

It  may  be  said,  however,  that  these  are  allegorical  expressions, 
not  to  be  taken  according  to  the  strictness  of  the  letter,  but  with 
the  necessary  allowances  for  the  florid  and  figurative  style  of 
Eastern  writings.  But  in  such  case  of  what  value  or  authority 
would  the  Scriptures  be  as  the  fixed  and  only  rule  of  faith  and 
practice  1  Who  does  not  see  that  on  this  principle  all  depend- 
ance  on  Scripture  is  done  away.  Heaven  and  hell  may  be  an 
allegory,  as  well  as  these  revolting  but  saving  truths.  To  try 
this  subterfuge  of  unbelief,  pride,  and  self-righteousness  by  the 
only  safe  rule,  let  us,  in  the 

II.  Second  place,  hear  the  confessions  and  acknowledgments 
of  all  holy  men  in  all  ages. 

To  begin  with  Job,  who  certainly  confided  more  in  the  right- 
eousness of  his  life,  for  the  assurance  of  God's  favour,  than 
could  be  allowed  under  the  light  of  the  gospel.  What  is  the 
testimony  of  this  approved  man  to  this  point,  Hoio  should  man 
be  just  with  God  ]  If  he  iv'dl  contend  icith  him  he  cannot  answer 
him  one  of  a  thousand,  how  much  less  shall  I  answer  him,  and 
choose  out  my  words  to  reason  with  him  whom  though  I  loere  right- 
eous yet  would  I  not  answer,  but  I  would  make  supplication  to  my 
judge.  If  I  justify  myself  mine  own  mouth  shall  condemn  me  :  if  I 
say,  I  am  perfect,  it  shall  also  prove  me  perverse.  Though  I  were 
perfect  yet  would  I  not  know  my  soul,  I  would  despise  my  life.  If  I 
wash  myself  with  snow  water  and  make  my  hands  never  so  clean, 
yet  shall  thou  plunge  me  in  the  ditch  and  mine  own  clothes  shall 
abhor  me.  Who  can  bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean  ?  JVof 
one.  How,  then,  can  man  be  justified  xcith  God  ?  Or  hoio  can  he 
he  clean  that  is  born  of  a  tooman  ?  Behold  even  to  the  moon,  and  it 
shineth  not,  yea^  the  stars  are  not  pure  in  his  sight,  hoio  much  less 
man,  that  is  a  worm,  and  the  son  of  man  which  is  a  worm  ?  And 
at  the  close  of  his  trial  when  it  pleased  God  to  turn  his  mourn- 
ing into  rejoicing,  and  make  a  clearer  manifestation  of  himself 
to  his  righteous  servant,  what  was  the  effect  1  Deeper  humiliation 
and  self-abasement.     /  have  heard  of  thee  by  the  hearing  of  the 


SIN    AND    DEATH. 


91 


mr,  but  now  mine  eye  seeth  thee,  icherefore,  I  abhor  myself  and 
repent  in  dust  and  ashes. 

What  is  the  confession  of  David,  the  man  after  God's  own 
heart,  an  inspired  prophet,  and  a  type  of  the  Messiah  :  Behold 
I  loas  shapen  in  iniquity  and  in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me. 
Who  can  tell  hoio  oft  he  offendeth.  O  cleanse  thou  me  from  my 
secret  faults.  Enter  not  into  judgment  with  thy  servant,  0  Lord /or 
in  thy  sight  shall  no  man  living  be  justified. 

What  acknowledgment  doth  Daniel  make  in  this  behalf — a 
man  whom  his  very  enemies  admitted  they  could  find  no  occa- 
sion against,  unless  they  found  it  concerning  the  law  of  his  God. 

0  Lord  the  great  and  dreadful  God,  keeping  the  covenant  and 
mercy  to  them  that  love  him,  and  to  them  that  keep  his  command- 
ments, we  have  sinned,  and  have  committed  iniquity,  and  have 
done  wickedly,  and  have  rebelled,  even  by  departing  from  thy  pre- 
cepts and  thy  judgments. 

What  saith  .Tohn  the  Baptist,  who  was  more  than  a  prophet, 
and  sanctified  with  the  Holy  Ghost  from  his   mother's  womb. 

1  have  need  to  be  baptised  of  thee,  and  contest  thou  to  me  ?  What 
is  St.  Paul's  confession  ?  /  know  that  in  me  divelleth  no  good 
thing.  And  though  he  could  say,  that  touching  the  righteous- 
ness which  is  in  the  law,  that  is,  the  outward  morality  of  his  hie, 
he  was  blameless — yet  what  things  were  gain  to  me,  says  he, 
those  I  counted  loss  for  Christ.  Yea,  doubtless,  and  I  count  all 
things  but  loss,  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
Jesus  my  Lord,  for  whom  I  have  suffered  the  loss  of  all  ihingSj 
and  do  count  them  but  dung,  that  I  may  icin  Christ,  and  be  found 
in  him,  not  having  mine  own  righteousness,  which  is  of  the  law 
but  that  lohich  is  through  the  faith  of  Christ,  the  righteousness 
which  is  of  God  by  faith. 

What  is  the  acknowledgment  of  St.  John,  the  beloved 
disciple  1  If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin  we  deceive  ourselves,  and 
the  truth  is  not  in  us ;  if  tve  say  that  we  have  not  sinned,  ive  make 
him  a  liar,  and  his  word  is  not  in  us. 

And  what  is  the  confession  of  every  true  Christian  from  that 
day  to  this  ]  JVot  by  ivorks  of  righteousness  which  ice  have  done, 
but  according  to  his  mercy  he  saved  us. 

Now,  then,  let  me  ask,  is  there  any  thing  allegorical  or  figura- 


92  SIN    AND    DEATH. 

five  in  these  plain  and  direct  confessions  of  sin,  original  and 
actual,  and  of  the  utter  worthlessness  of  every  thing  that  can 
be  done  by  a  fallen,  imperfect  creature,  to  propitiate  and  please 
a  just  and  perfect  God.  No,  it  is  matter  of  fact  and  of  expe- 
rience, as  is  ready  to  be  testified  by  every  Christian  present. 
How,  then,  shall  those  escape  who  resist  such  conclusive  testi- 
mony, and  refuse  a  righteousness  perfect  and  complete,  pro- 
vided for  them  by  the  mercy  of  God,  in  Christ  Jesus.  O 
flee  to  the  strong  hold  ye  prisoners  of  hope — tarry  not  in  the 
plain,  however  pleasant  it  may  appear — and  look  not  behind 
you,  neither  turn  back  to  gather  up  the  filthy  rags  of  your  own 
righteousness — they  will  but  encumber  your  flight,  and  mar  your 
progress  to  the  city  of  refuge. 

III.  For,  thirdly,  the  actual  condition  of  all  present  is  such  as 
to  prove  beyond  dispute,  that  in  our  own  righteousness  we  can- 
not stand  the  severity  of  God's  judgment. 

To  satisfy  you  on  this  point,  let  us  first  consider  what  that 
God  is,  whom  we  have  thus  to  meet.  Now  can  any  of  you, 
even  the  wisest  among  you,  tell  me  any  thing  of  his  nature  and 
attributes,  by  a  knowledge  of  your  own  1  How,  then,  are  we  to 
know  any  thing  of  him,  unless  by  revelation  1  And  what,  in  this 
respect,  says  the  true  and  faithful  witness,  who  was  with  him 
from  the  beginning,  and  hath  plainly  showed  us  of  the  Father  1 
Pure,  holy,  perfect,  and  unchangeable  ;  who  cannot  behold 
iniquity,  or  look  upon  sin  with  the  least  degree  of  allowance — 
yet  gracious  and  merciful,  compassionate  and  long-suffering — 
not  willing  that  any  should  perish.  Do  you  require  a  proof  of 
his  hatred  of  sin.  Behold  him  exacting  from  his  only  Son,  as 
our  representative,  the  penalty  due  to  it,  as  the  sole  condition  of 
its  pardon.  Do  you  want  one  of  his  loving  kindness  and  tender 
mercy  *?  Behold  it  in  his  so  loving  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish  but 
have  everlasting  life.  But  what  is  sin  ]  Sin  is  the  transgression 
of  the  unchangeable  law  of  this  pure  and  holy  being,  in  any  of 
its  literal  or  spiritual  requirements.  Cursed  is  every  one  that 
continueth  not,  in  all  things  loritten  in  the  Book  of  the  Law^  to 
do  them. 

And  now  let  us  all  view  ourselves  in  the  glass  of  this   Holy 


SIN    AND    DEATH.  93 

Law — do  we  perfectly  fulfil  either  of  the  two  great  command- 
ments, into  which  all  the  others  are  resolvable,  in  the  love  of 
God  and  our  neighbour  1  Do  we  love  the  glorious  God  and 
Father  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,  with  all  our  heart,  and  soul, 
and  strength,  without  abatement  or  intermission  1  Do  we  love 
our  neighbour  as  ourselves  1  Has  selfishness,  hatred,  or  envy  no 
part  in  us  1  If  to  neither  of  these  we  can  answer  a  word,  but 
must  all  lay  our  hands  upon  our  mouths,  what  possible  ground 
can  there  be  for  the  self-righteous  delusion,  under  which  so 
many  are  posting  to  the  consuming  fire  of  God's  righteous 
judgment. 

But  it  will  be  said,  God  does  not  now  require  perfect  unsinning 
obedience  from  us.  What "?  God  not  require  perfect  obedience 
from  those  who  proudly  stand  in  their  own  righteousness'?  Why, 
what  saith  the  law  ]  The  man  that  doeth  these  things  shall  live  by 
them.  But  what  if  he  doeth  them  not?  The  soul  that  sinnethit 
shall  die.  But  to  come  a  little  closer  yet.  Have  you  com- 
mitted one  sin  ;  have  you  taken  the  name  of  God  in  vain,  have 
you  profaned  his  day  of  holy  rest  and  privileged  worship  1 
Have  you  given  way  to  hatred  or  revenge,  have  you  defrauded 
or  exacted,  have  you  lusted  or  coveted,  and  this  even  in  thought ; 
what  becomes  of  you  1  Where  is  your  boasted  righteousness  1 
But  we  repent  of  our  sins,  and  are  sorry  for  them,  you  will  say. 
But  I  say,  that  without  faith  in  Christ  you  do  a  needless  work, 
and  one  that  will  profit  you  nothing  ;  for  there  is  no  room  left 
for  repentance  in  the  law  itself ;  nor,  from  the  very  nature  of 
the  thing,  can  there  be  provision  of  mercy,  in  favour  of  the 
violater  of  it,  in  any  law,  divine  or  human.  Such  a  provision 
would  nullify  it  as  a  law,  and  invite  to  the  breach  of  what  it  for- 
bids. Mercy  and  means  to  undo  wrong  must  be  sought  for 
elsewhere.  But  did  not  Christ  die  for  us,  and  redeem  human 
nature  from  the  curse  under  which  it  laboured  1  Yes.  Blessed 
be  the  merciful  God,  who  freely  delivered  him  for  us  all — that 
he  by  the  grace  of  God  should  taste  death  for  every  man.  But 
let  me  ask,  does  the  name  of  Christ  act  like  a  charm,  and 
save  those  who  never  have  recourse  to  it,  as  set  forth  in  the 
gospel — who  are  such  righteous,  good  sort  of  people,  that  they 
do  not  need  his  interposition  but  in  part  t  Oh  !  what  a  cruel  and 


94  SIN    AND    DEATH. 

desperate  disease,  is  this  deep-rooted  and  wide-spread  propensity 
in  our  fallen  nature,  to  be  in  whole  or  in  part  our  own  saviours. 
How  does  it  cast  contempt  on  the  gospel  of  our  salvation,  and 
make  the  blood  of  Christ  a  needless  thing?  How  does  it  bar 
up  the  door  of  our  hearts,  against  the  entrance  of  that  convic- 
tion of  our  sinful,  lost,  and  undone  condition,  which  alone  makes 
Christ  precious  to  the  believer  ?  How  does  it  stupify,  and  stifle, 
and  drown  the  wholesome  convictions  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as 
belonging  only  to  the  very  profligates  of  our  race  1  Did  it  not 
thus  act  on  the  self-righteous  Pharisees,  my  hearers,  who  rejected 
the  preaching,  both  of  John  and  of  our  Saviour,  while  the 
Publicans  and  harlots  pressed  into  the  kingdom  of  God  before 
them '?  Oh  !  how  many  estimable  persons — how  many  dear  and 
precious  souls  are  dreaming  out  their  day  of  grace,  under  this 
delusion — turning  aside  the  arrows  of  God's  true  and  faithful 
word,  and  crying  peace,  peace,  lohen  there  is  no  peace.  How 
many  are  indolently  resting  on  the  general  proclamation  of  the 
gospel,  for  mercy  with  God,  through  Jesus  Christ,  who  have 
not  even  taken  the  first  step  towards  securing  that  mercy,  by 
professing  his  religion,  confessing  his  name  before  men,  and  par- 
taking of  the  ordinances  he  hath  appointed  in  his  Church,  who 
are  in  fact,  afraid  and  ashamed  of  the  self-denials  these  things 
draw  after  them,  but  never  think  of  the  awful  threatening — 
Whosoever  shall  be  asharned  of  me  and  my  words,  in  an  adul- 
terous and  sinful  generation,  of  him  will  I  he  ashamed  before  my 
Father  and  the  Holy  Angels.  O  thou,  who  art  thus  sleeping, 
awake,  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light. 
Hear  him  calling  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  come  unto  him, 
and  be  saved.  Hear  him  declaring,  that  whosoever  cometh 
unto  him,  he  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.  Be  no  longer  faithless, 
but  believing — for  unto  thee  is  the  word  of  this  salvation  sent. 
But  come  as  a  sinner,  for  he  also  declares  that  he  came  not  to 
call  the  righteous  but  sinners  to  repentance — for  the  sick  only 
have  need  of  the  physician. 

And  let  not  the  plain  and  unadorned  manner  in  which  I  have 
endeavoured  to  set  before  you  the  mortal  disease,  under  which 
we  all  labour,  my  hearers,  revolt  you  against  the  wholesome 
warning.     To  speak  smooth  things,  and  to  prophesy  deceits, 


SIN    AND    DEATH.  95 

might  please  more,  perhaps,  for  the  little  hour  you  were  listen- 
ing ;  but  what,  then,  becomes  of  your  souls  and  my  own  1  How 
deep  and  loud  would  your  curses  be  upon  me,  when  together 
we  shall  prove  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  this  doctrine,  in  the 
great  day  of  Eternity  ;  but  how  much  deeper  the  curse  of  God 
upon  my  soul,  for  healing  the  hurt  of  the  daughters  of  his  people 
slightly;  and,  as  the  Lord's  watchman,  failing  to  warn  the 
wicked  from  his  way.  God  being  my  helper,  your  blood  shall 
not  be  required  at  my  hand.  I  might,  indeed,  have  set  before 
you  the  rich  mercy  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  to  his  creatures, 
or  I  might  have  expatiated  upon  the  joys  and  glories  which  await 
the  righteous  in  the  presence  of  God,  and  been  to  you  as  the 
sound  of  one  who  has  a  pleasant  voice  and  can  play  loell  upon  an 
instrument.  But  such  is  our  miserable  condition,  that  until  con- 
vinced that  we  need  mercy  we  spurn  the  offer  :  and  the  glories 
of  heaven  are  prepared  for  those  only  who,  hj  faith,  are  made  the 
righteousness  of  God  in  him  whom  God  hath  made  to  be  sin  for 
us  ;  for  those  who,  born  from  above,  bring  forth  the  fruits  of 
their  heavenly  birth,  in  all  hohness  of  life  and  godliness  of 
conversation,  and  overcoming  the  world  by  faith  in  the  Son  of 
God,  shall  be  accounted  worthy  to  sit  down  at  the  marriage 
supper  of  the  Lamb.  But  to  this  the  righteousness  of  the  crea- 
ture is  an  insuperable  bar,  and  as  surely  excludes  from  the 
Paradise  of  God  as  the  flaming  sword  of  the  cherubim  kept  the 
way  of  the  tree  of  life  from  our  fallen  first  parents. 

Suffer,  then,  the  word  of  exhortation ;  take  its  leading  truth 
to  your  private  meditations  and  prayers  ;  bring  it  to  the  law  and 
to  the  testimony  in  the  word  of  life  ;  and  may  that  light  which 
is  the  life  of  men  shine  into  your  hearts  and  guide  you  to  light 
and  glory  eternal. 

And  you,  my  Christian  brethren,  who  know  and  confess  that 
in  the  Lord  only  have  we  righteousness  and  strength,  whose  con- 
stant cry  is,  not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy  great 
name  be  given  the  glory  and  the  praise ;  cease  not  to  strive 
together  in  your  prayers  to  God,  for  these,  your  brethren,  and 
with  them  in  your  lives— letting  your  light  so  shine  before  men 
that  all  may  take  knowledge  of  you  that  you  have  been  with 
Jesus.     Strengthen  not  the  self-righteous  delusion  under  which 


96  SIN    AND    DEATH. 

they  labour,  by  such  conformity  to  the  world,  in  any  of  its  pur- 
suits or  pleasures,  as  shall  bring  down  the  difference  between 
you  to  a  mere  name.  Alas  the  day  !  when  a  Christian  has  to 
sound  a  trumpet  before  him,  to  tell  what  he  is  ;  for  though  it  is 
no  excuse  to  them,  yet  is  it  a  reproach  to  that  holy  name  by  the 
which  ye  are  called,  and  strengthens  the  unbelief  of  those  who 
seek  occasion  against  the  gospel.  Remember  that  it  is  not  cry- 
ing Lord,  Lord,  that  will  open  the  gate  of  eternal  life  to  you, 
but  the  doing  the  will  of  your  father  which  is  in  heaven.  Remem- 
ber that  feelings  and  fervours  are  not  fruits,  and  that  every  tree 
which  beareth  not  good  fruit  is  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire. 
Let  your  fruit,  then,  be  unto  holiness  that  the  end  may  be  ever- 
lasting life. 

Now  the  God  of  peace,  that  brovght  again  from  the  dead  our 
Lord  Jesus,  that  great  shepherd  of  the  sheep,  through  the  blood 
of  the  everlasting  covenant,  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work 
to  do  his  will,  working  in  you  that  which  is  well  pleasing  in  his 
sight,  through  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever. 
Amen. 


SERMON  IX. 

DANGER   OF    BEING    HARDENED    IN    SIN. 

Hebrews  iii.  13,  last  clause. 
"  Lest  any  of  you  be  hardened  through  the  deceitfulness  of  sin." 

The  words  immediately  connected  with  my  text,  are  the 
ibllowing : — 

Take  heed,  brethren,  lest  there  be,  in  any  of  you,  an  evil  heart  of 
unbelief,  in  departing  from  the  living  God.  But  exhort  one  another 
daily,  ivhile  it  is  called  to-day ;  lest  any  of  you  be  hardened  through 
the  deceitfulness  of  sin. 

We  learn  from  them,  that  all  sin  is  a  departure  from  the 
living  God — a  separation  of  ourselves  from  his  service  because 
we  prefer  another  master.  That  this  separation  from  God,  in 
becoming  the  servants  of  sin,  proceeds  from  unbelief — from  the 
want  of  a  serious  and  full  persuasion  of  the  heart,  that  the 
promises  and  threatenings  of  Almighty  God,  revealed  in  his 
word,  are  actually  his  fixed  and  unchangeable  purpose.  And 
it  is  called  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief,  because  it  is  a  wilful  rejection 
of  the  plainest  declarations  and  most  undeniable  testimony  that 
can  be  made  and  given;  nothing  being  more  certain  than  that 
the  wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven  against  all  unright- 
eousness of  men,  and  that  this  revelation  is  in  our  hands  by  the 
gospel.  Against  this  the  apostle  cautions  Christians  to  take 
heed,  that  is,  to  be  on  their  guard,  for  themselves,  and  to  exhort 
each  other  continually,  as  against  a  danger  very  artful  and 
insidious  in  its  commencement  and  progress,  and  most  destruct- 
ive in  its  consequences. 

A  common  danger  and  a  common  duty,  therefore,  my  breth- 
ren, will  engage  us  all,  I  trust,  in  exertions  for  the  common 
benefit.  For  the  direction  here  given  is  the  same  in  substance 
with  the  old  commandment — Thou  shalt  in  any  loise  rebuke  thy 
neighbour  and  not  suffer  sin  upon  him ;  and  is,  in  the  truest  and 

Vol.  II.— 13 


98         DANGER  OF  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIN. 

highest  sense,  a  fulfilling  of  the  new  commandment — Thou  shall 
love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself. 

That  we  may  the  better  understand  the  ground  and  reason  of 
this  duty,  I  will  endeavour  to  exjDlain, 

First,  what  is  meant  by  being  hardened  in  sin. 
Secondly,  I  will  point  out  what  are  the  causes  of  men's 
growing  hardened  in  sin. 

Thirdly,  I  will  show  how  insufficient  these  causes  are  to 
excuse  their  guilt. 

Lastly,  I  shall  enforce  the  obligation  of  my  text  upon 
Christians,  to  mutual  encouragement  and  assistance  in  working 
out  their  salvation. 

Lest  any  of  you  be  hardened  through  the  deceitfulness  of  sin. 
I.  First,  to  explain  what  is  meant  by  being  hardened  in  sin. 
Being  hardened  in  sin  undoubtedly  means,  in  this  connexion^ 
the  being  shut  up  and  concluded  under  the  power  and  dominion 
of  sin,  or,  as  it  is  otherwise  expressed,  the  being  given  over  to  a 
reprobate  mind  ;  and  it  is  against  this  awful  condition,  as  the  final 
result  of  sin  indulged  and  persisted  in,  that  the  apostle  utters 
his  warning.     Hence  we   learn,   my  friends,  that  there  is  a 
progression  in  the  finally  impenitent  character,  increasing  in 
danger  and  malignity  as  we  continue  to  disregard  the  warnings 
and  admonitions  of  the  word  of  God,  of  our  friends,  and  of  our 
consciences;    and  we  also  learn,  that  the  inevitable  consequence 
of  sin  persisted  in,  is  the  destruction  of  the  moral  sense  and  of 
all  hope  or  capacity  of  salvation. 

But  as  there  are  degrees  or  grades  in  this  hardening,  it  is 
against  these,  in  every  stage,  that  we  are  exhorted  to  be  on  our 
guard,  and  to  caution  one  another. 

Of  these  degrees,  a  thoughtless  yet  criminal  unconcern  on 
the  subject  of  religion  is  the  lowest;  it  is  also  the  most  frequent; 
and  if  not  arrested  by  serious  reflection,  by  the  admonition  of 
friends,  or  by  some  startling  Providence,  continues  gradually  to 
plunge  men  deeper  into  unbelief  In  such  persons  we  may 
remark  a  strange  inattention  to  every  thing  connected  with 
religion,  a  disregard  of  the  clearest  evidence  and  arguments  ui 
favour  of  it,  and  a  prodigality  of  youth,  of  health,  and  fortune,  in 
the  dissipations  or  pursuits  of  the  worldj  as  if  they  had  not  times 


DANGER  OF  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIN.         99 

even  if  they  had  the  inclination,  to  listen  to  any  thing  in  behalf 
of  their  souls. 

This  primarily  thoughtless  unconcern,  however^  is,  before 
long,  succeeded  by  a  perverseness  of  temper  which  not  only 
neglects  but  resents  admonition,  and  may  be  considered  as  the 
next  stage  in  the  process  of  hardening.  The  deceitful  influence 
of  sin  has  gradually  overcome  that  levity  of  mind  which  distin- 
guishes the  youthful  novice  in  the  ways  of  vice,  and  trained  him 
up  to  regard  whatever  is  opposed  to  his  course  as  an  enemy ; 
and  here  begins  that  strain  of  infidel  objection  to  revelation, 
that  proud  entertainment  of  doubt  as  to  its  truth,  certainty,  and 
importance,  which  disfigures  so  many  minds  evidently  intended 
for  better  things,  and  is  so  fruitful  in  gaining  proselytes  from  less 
gifted  but  equally  passion-driven  followers  of  the  flesh  and  of 
the  mind.  The  word  of  God,  they  well  know,  is  unrelentingly 
opposed  to  all  that  they  delight  in.  It  must,  therefore,  be 
invalidated  in  some  way,  and,  to  the  love  of  sin,  my  hearers, 
we  owe  every  effort  against  the  Scriptures.  Never  was  there  yet 
an  infidel,  but  from  the  love  of  sin  in  some  of  its  many  deceits. 

From  this  state  of  opposition  to  truth  and  reason  the  progress 
is  rapid  to  the  last  stage  of  hardness  and  impenitency.  To  that 
fixed  love  of  what  is  directly  immoral,  that  aversion  to  every 
thing  of  a  religious  nature,  that  stubborn,  callous  disposition, 
which  is  alike  impenetrable  to  the  fear  or  the  favour  of  Almighty 
God,  which  is  described  in  Scripture  as  having  tlie  understanding 
darkened  and  the  mind  blinded  ;  as  being  past  feelings  and  repro- 
bate to  every  good  work;  as  given  over  to  vile  affections,  to  work 
all  uncleanness  with  greediness  ;  as  being  sold  under  sin. 

This  it  is  to  be  hardened  through  the  deceitfulness  of  sin, 
according  to  the  Scriptural  meaning  of  that  expression,  and  as 
we  have  instances  of  this  wretched  condition  continually  before 
our  eyes,  not  only  in  actual  outbreaking  wickedness,  but  in  the 
equally  fatal  influence  of  some  master  sin,  occupying  the  heart 
against  God,  nothing  further  needs  be  said  either  to  point  it  out 
or  to  explain  it. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  point  out  to  you  the  causes  of  men's 
growing  hardened  in  sin. 

The  first  cause  or  occasion  of  our  being  drawn  into  sin  is,  our 


IGO 


DANGER  OF  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIN. 


natural  frailty  and  the  temptations  to  which  we  are  exposed. 
The  one  is  the  consequence  of  our  fallen  condition  ;  the  other 
is  a  necessar}'  attendant  on  a  state  of  trial.  It  is  the  allurement 
of  temptations  from  without  and  of  passions  from  within,  there- 
fore, which,  properly  speaking,  form  the  deceitfulness  of  sin. 
Deceit,  we  all  know,  is  the  promise,  in  some  way,  of  enjoyment 
or  advantage,  which  is  not  made  good  ;  and  in  this  view  sin  is 
the  completest  deception  that  ever  was  played  off  upon  rational 
beings.  For  in  its  very  highest  attainments  there  is  no  perpe- 
tuity, and  even  what  gratification  there  is,  is  sooner  or  later  fol- 
lowed by  disappointment,  suffering,  and  remorse. 

We  are  surrounded  by  various  enticements  to  evil,  and  the 
weakness  of  our  fallen  nature  and  the  wilfulness  of  inordinate 
desire  is  too  prone  to  comply  with  them.  The  oftener  we  do 
so  the  more  do  we  increase  their  strength  ;  the  less  able  and  the 
less  willing  do  we  become  to  resist  them.  Custom  in  sin  silences 
the  conscience,  habit  becomes  inveterate,  so  that,  as  the  Scrip- 
ture expresses  it,  we  cannot  cease  from  sin,  till  at  length  we  may 
truly  be  said  to  be  hardened  through  the  deceitfulness  of  sin, 
deluded  by  it  and  besotted  to  it,  stupidly  regardless  of  our  real 
good,  deaf  to  admonition,  impatient  of  restraint. 

The  next  cause  of  men's  continuing  in  sin,  is  the  custom  of 
the  world  and  the  frequency  of  example. 

Experience  teaches  us,  my  hearers,  that  the  oftener  we  com- 
mit any  sin  ourselves,  or  see  it  committed  by  others,  the  more 
indifferent  does  it  grow  to  us  ;  we  are  too  quickly  accustomed 
to  it,  and,  in  no  long  time,  shake  off  that  fear  and  alarm  which 
all,  more  or  less,  feel  at  first.  We  become  familiarized  to  sin  ; 
it  is  a  school  in  which  we  are  apt  scholars  and  take  our  degrees 
with  great  applause.  This  miserable  delusion  is  encouraged  in 
various  ways — evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners :  but  the 
most  common  is,  the  strange  notion  that  the  evil  is  not  great 
because  we  are  no  worse  than  our  neighbours,  perhaps  not  so 
bad  as  some  of  them  ;  as  if  the  being  countenanced  by  com- 
panions could  lessen  guilt,  or  the  number  of  criminals  either 
decrease  crime  or  lighten  its  punishment.  Hence  it  comes  to 
pass,  that  whatever  offence  against  the  law  of  God  is  most  com- 
mon is  least  censured,  while  another  no  less  sinful  and  blame- 


DANGER  OF  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIN.        101 

worthy,  is  marked  with  infamy  only  because  less  frequent  and 
less  familiar. 

A  third  means  of  becoming-  hardened  in  sin  is,  a  false  and 
unscriptural  notion  of  the  mercy  of  God. 

This,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  is,  undoubtedly,  the  most 
fertile  delusion  which  Satan  ever  invented  to  deceive  rational 
beings  to  their  ruin.  Clemency  and  compassion  form  so  con- 
spicuous a  part  of  the  character  of  the  Deity,  as  revealed  to  us, 
that  we  are  apt  to  forget  his  other  attributes ;  and  this  is  increas- 
ed by  the  propensity  of  our  nature  to  consider  as  actually  such, 
what  we  greatly  desire  should  be  so.  In  such  case  temptation 
finds  us  more  than  half  overcome,  our  fallen  nature  is  on 
the  side  of  the  enemy ;  and  when  this  is  encouraged  by 
the  hope  of  impunity,  sin  prevails  to  the  establishment  of  its 
dominion  over  us.  "The  wish  is  father  to  the  thought."  and  we 
are  soon  persuaded  to  risk  even  eternity  on  so  slender  a 
foundation  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  I  have  only  to  appeal  to  the 
hearts  of  all  present  for  the  proof  of  this  powerful  cause  of  men's 
becoming  hardened  in  sin. 

In  the  fourth  place,  we  become  hardened  in  sin  by  faint,  irre- 
solute, procrastinated  promises  and  purposes  of  amendment. 

Next  to  unauthorized  trust  in  God's  mercy  this  that  I  have 
just  mentioned  is  the  great  betrayer  of  the  souls  of  men  into 
a  state  of  confirmed  sinfulness;  and  the  reason  is  perfectly  obvi- 
ous. There  is  a  close  connexion  between  guilt  and  uneasiness 
of  mind.  The  sinner,  until  thoroughly  hardened,  feels  and 
betrays  this  uneasiness,  and  to  escape  from  it  he  resorts  to  the 
compromise  of  future  repentance  ;  thus  lulling  and  blinding  his 
conscience  while  the  enemy  is  daily  drawing  closer  around  him 
those  cords  of  everlasting  misery  and  despair  which  await  the 
sinner  who  thus  trifles  with  the  awakenings  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  the  long  suffering  mercy  and  revealed  wrath  of  Almighty 
God. 

Lastly,  that  which  completes  the  hardening  power  of  sin,  and 
shows  that  it  has  full  dominion  over  body  and  soul,  is,  denying 
religion,  scoffing  at  its  sanctions,  and  becoming  advocates  for 
infidelity. 

When  men  have  lived  in  such  a  manner  that  they  have  every 


102  DANGER   OP    BEING    HARDENED    IN    SIN. 

thing  to  fear  and  nothing  to  hope  from  religion,  their  only 
resource  is  to  treat  it  as  a  forgery — to  give  importance  to  every 
objection  against  it — that  they  may  obtain  some  present  relief 
against  the  remembrance  of  those  sins,  which  yet  they  are 
determined  not  to  forsake.  And  herein,  my  brethren  and 
hearers,  is  showed  the  concluding  power  of  sin  persisted  in,  to 
harden  the  heart  and  close  up  every  avenue  to  pardon  and 
peace. 

The  religion  of  the  gospel  denounces  the  wrath  of  God,  for 
ever,  against  sin ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  offers  to  the  sinner  the 
means  of  escape  from  this  unalterable  curse.  This  the  resolved 
sinner  knows — throughout  his  whole  course  of  rebellion  against 
God  it  has  repeatedly  been  pressed  upon  him — but  he  would 
not  hear ;  and  in  the  last  struggle  of  the  Holy  Spirit  with  him 
for  his  soul,  it  is  again  presented  to  his  thoughts.  But  so  harden- 
ed has  he  become,  that  the  only  medicine  which  can  heal  him 
is  rejected,  is  scoffed  at,  and  vilified  as  a  cheat  and  imposition — 
as  a  contrivance  of  priestcraft,  to  deprive  men  of  their  liberty, 
and  make  them  the  slaves  and  the  dupes  of  superstition  and  fraud. 
As  St.  Jude  expresses  it — Clouds  they  are  ivithout  water,  carried 
about  of  winds  ;  trees  whose  fruit  withereth,  tvithout  fruit,  twice  dead, 
plucked  up  by  the  roots ;  raging  waves  of  the  sea,  foaming  out  their 
own  shame ;  wandering  stars,  to  whom  is  reserved  the  blackness  of 
darkness  for  ever. 

III.  Thirdly,  I  am  to  show  you  how  insufficient  these  causes 
are  to  excuse  their  guilt. 

Nothing  is  more  frequently  or  freely  resorted  to,  as  an  excuse 
for  sin,  than  our  natural  frailty  and  the  strength  of  temptation. 
But,  that  it  forms  no  reasonable  justification  of  transgression 
will  abundantly  apj)e.ar  fi  )m  the  following  considerations. 

No  single  instance  can  be  inentioned  in  which  we  are  under 
the  necessity  of  following  any  passion  or  inclination,  beyond  its 
lawful  bounds.  Whatever  the  temptation  may  be,  every  man 
must  be  conscious  that  he  has  power  over  the  outward  act,  at 
the  least ;  and,  therefore,  giving  way  to  temptation,  especially  at 
the  beginning,  is  a  voluntary  act.  Indeed,  until  the  conscience 
has  become  deadened  by  the  effects  of  sin,  no  man  ever  commits 
a  wicked  or  even  a  foolish  action  without  wishing  he  had  not 


DANGER  OF  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIN.        103 

done  it,  and  condemning  himself  for  so  doing,  which  proves  his 
consciousness  that  he  had  power  to  refrain  from  it,  and  that  he 
ought  to  have  exerted  it, 

Again,  it  is  the  result  of  observation  and  experience,  that 
men  are  restrained  from  many  crimes  by  the  laws  of  their  coun- 
try, by  respect  for  particular  characters,  by  the  fear  of  disgrace, 
and  the  dread  of  present  punishment.  Now  this  undeniably 
shows,  that  no  necessity  to  sin  is  laid  upon  any  man,  and,  there- 
fore, that  all  wickedness  is  voluntary,  and  justly  charged  as  our 
own  act. 

Once  more,  admitting  the  most  that  can  be  desired  in  excuse 
for  sin  from  the  frailty  of  our  nature  and  the  power  of  tempta- 
tion, it  will  avail  us  nothing  before  our  judge,  because  he  has 
provided  and  offered  the  assistance  of  liis  grace  to  supply  our 
weakness,  in  the  strength  whereof  all  temptation  is  powerless. 
If,  therefore,  we  neglect  or  refuse  to  apply  for  this  help,  we  are 
doubly  guilty,  not  only  guilty  of  the  sinful  act,  but  guilty  of 
slighting  that  offered  and  effectual  help  through  which  tempta- 
tion could  have  been  resisted  and  overcome. 

Let  no  man,  therefore,  pretend  to  excuse  his  sin  by  the 
strength  of  the  temptation  which  led  to  it.  God  will  not  suffer 
us  to  be  tempted  beyond  the  provision  he  has  made  for  us  to 
resist  it.  Therefore,  if  we  yield  we  dishonour  God,  both  by 
distrusting  and  disobeying  him  ;  if  we  can  withstand  temptation 
in  some  cases,  we  may  in  all;  if  human  laws  can  control 
sinful  actions,  much  more  ought  the  laws  of  God  to  hold  them 
in  subjection  ;  if  the  presence  of  an  earthly  superior  can  control 
and  check  the  vicious  and  the  profligate  in  their  behaviour,  the 
consideration  that  the  eye  of  heaven  is  continually  upon  us, 
ought  to  be  a  much  more  powerful  restraint  upon  rational 
beings ;  if  the  laws  and  the  judges,  and  the  prisons,  and  the 
gibbets  of  this  world  are  of  force  to  deter  criminals  from  their 
evil  works,  what  should  be  the  restraining  power  of  the  law, 
and  the  judge,  and  the  prison,  and  the  sentence,  and  the  execu- 
tion of  eternity  ]  Oh  !  what  an  audacious  criminal  is  the  gospel 
sinner,  who  wilfully  sets  at  nought  both  the  fear  of  man  and  the 
power  of  God. 


104        DANGER  OF  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIN. 

Equally  unfounded  is  the  excuse  made  for  sin,  from  the  custom 
of  the  world  and  the  frequency  of  bad  example. 

If  the  guilt  of  sin  decreased  in  the  ratio  that  the  numbers 
committing  sin  increased,  there  would  be  some  sense  and  reason 
*n  giving  way  to  such  a  course.  Indeed,  it  would  be  the  interest 
of  every  man  to  hasten  into  sin,  in  order  to  reduce  the  amount  .as 
low  as  possible ;  but  as  such  an  imagination  is  a  complete 
absurdity,  so  is  the  excuse  for  sin,  from  custom  and  example, 
as  complete  a  folly.  Sin  can  neither  lose  its  character  nor  be 
separated  from  its  consequences  by  combinations  in  its  favour, 
any  more  than  the  plague  can  become  less  dangerous  and  mortal 
in  proportion  as  those  infected  with  it  increase  in  number. 

Again,  if  fellowship  in  suffering  lessened  the  pain  of  individual 
torment,  the  folly  of  deriving  encouragement  to  sin,  or  of  feeling 
quiet  and  unconcerned  under  the  practice  of  it,  from  the  custom 
and  example  of  the  world,  would  be  less  intolerable.  But  when 
reason  and  experience  both  convince  us  that  it  is  not  so,  when 
the  analogy  of  present  pain  certifies  to  our  senses,  that  indi- 
vidual anguish  is  in  no  degree  mitigated  by  one  or  by  one  hundred 
others  suffering  at  'ihe  same  time,  or  in  the  same  manner  with 
ourselves  ;  this  dangerous  deceit  of  sin  should  be  abandoned  as 
a  snare  to  our  souls. 

And  further,  if  the  fallacy  that  numbers  in  the  same  condem- 
nation will  have  a  favourable  effect  on  the  sentence  of  the  judge, 
has  found  any  place  in  our  thoughts,  it  ought  at  once  to  be 
abandoned,  when  we  reflect  that  God  hath  no  need  of  the  sinful 
man,  and  has  solemnly  declared,  that  though  hand  join  in  hand 
yet  shall  not  the  wicked  go  unpunished. 

In  like  manner,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  of  that  most  exten- 
sive delusion  in  favour  of  the  deceitfulness  of  sin,  unfounded 
reliance  upon  the  mercy  of  God,  which  is  exactly  what  St. 
Paul  describes  by  continuing  in  sin  that  grace  may  abound. 

It  is  undoubtedly  a  ground  of  the  most  solid  comfort  to  know, 
that  the  world  is  under  the  government  of  a  wise,  omnipotent, 
and  good  being,  tvhose  tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works ;  but 
as  a  bad  use  may  be  made  of  the  best  things,  and  the  plainest 
truths  may  be  perverted  or  misapplied,  we  should  be  very  careful 


DANGER  OF  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIN.        105 

not  to  deceive  ourselves  by  wrongly  considering  the  divine 
perfections.  To  confine  the  Deity  to  one  single  attribute,  or 
what  is  the  same  thing,  to  exalt  one  in  such  wise  as  to  supersede 
the  exercise  of  the  others  in  his  dealings  with  his  creatures,  is  to 
deprive  him  of  that  without  which  he  could  neither  be  a  wise 
governor  or  a  righteous  judge.  Rewards  and  punishments  are 
equally  necessary  in  the  government  of  moral  creatures  ;  we 
are  sensible  of  their  good  effects  in  the  present  life,  and  must 
believe  them  equally  necessary  as  regards  the  life  that  is  to 
come.  A  righteous  God  must  punish  the  wicked,  or  be  unjust 
to  himself  and  to  the  righteous.  The  vindication  of  his  truth 
requires  it,  as  well  as  the  honour  of  his  holy  law,  broken  by 
sinners ;  besides,  how  unlimited  soever  we  conceive  his  mercy 
to  be,  still  it  has  its  rule  in  the  application.  It  can,  therefore, 
only  be  applied  to  capable  subjects,  and  as  impenitent  sinners 
are  not  of  that  number,  they  can  never  taste  of  it.  The  mercy 
of  God  is  revealed  for  our  comfort  and  encouragement;  its 
object  is,  to  lead  us  to  repentance,  not  to  confirm  us  in  sin  ;  and 
unless  it  produces  this  effect,  it  will  but  the  more  deeply  condemn 
us.  It  was  purchased  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  poured  out  upon 
the  cross,  and  it  is  revealed  that  God  may  be  feared  and  not 
sported  with. 

The  folly  and  unreasonableness,  of  putting  off  till  some  future 
time,  that  repentance  and  amendment  of  life,  which  is  indis- 
pensable to  pardon  of  sin  and  acceptance  with  God,  will  be 
evident,  I  trust,  from  the  following  considerations  : 

The  intention  to  repent  and  amend  the  life  at  some  future 
time,  is  an  acknowledgment,  that  in  whole  or  in  part,  it  is  at 
present  wrong,  and  contrary  to  the  known  will  of  God.  To 
delay,  then,  is,  of  set  purpose,  wilfully  and  deliberately  to  affront 
the  Almighty,  by  professing  to  intend  that,  which  nevertheless, 
we  do  not  mean  to  comply  with.  In  truth,  for  the  time  reserved, 
it  is  an  unqualified  preference  of  sin,  incompatible  with  any 
sincere  intention  of  ever  forsaking  it,  and  as  such,  a  most  fre- 
quent cause  of  being  given  over  to  hardness  of  heart.  For,  if 
it  be  necessary  and  right  to  repent  and  amend,  it  can  never  be 
either  necessary  or  right,  to  put  off  so  important  a  work.  If 
sin  be  justly  liable  to  the  wrath  of  God,  it  must  be  the  more  so 

Vol.  II.— U 


106         DANGER  OF  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIK. 

the  longer  it  is  persisted  in.  If  repentance  is  now  irksome  to 
think  of  and  difficult  to  commence,  will  it  not  become  more  irk- 
some and  difficult  through  the  inveterate  power  of  sin,  more  and 
more  confirmed  by  delay '?  May  not  God  be  provoked  to  cut 
you  off,  and  death  overtake  you  and  prevent  your  purpose,  even 
if  it  be  real  1  Now  all  this  is  very  possible,  and  very  dreadful  to 
think  of;  yet  it  has  happened  to  thousands,  and  there  is  no 
reason  can  be  given,  nor  any  assurance  offered,  why  it  may  not 
happen  to  every  delaying  sinner  present,  who  is  in  this  wise 
parleying  with  destruction. 

As  to  the  last  resort  of  the  resolved  sinner,  in  renouncing 
religion  and  becoming  the  advocate  of  infidelity,  words  are  insuffi- 
cient to  express  the  greatness  of  his  folly.  For  by  this  he  com- 
i^letcly  shuts  the  door  against  hope  for  ever,  there  being  hope 
for  the  sinner  no  where  but  in  the  gospel. 

The  highest  stretch  of  thought,  the  most  unbounded  imagina- 
tion of  the  nature  and  properties  of  the  Supreme  Being,  which 
man  can  indulge,  present  no  hope,  can  draw  no  conjecture  even, 
of  what  awaits  us  after  death,  without  aid  from  Revelation.  The 
infidel,  therefore,  or  rejector  of  the  gospel,  for  they  are  the  same, 
does  in  fact  extinguish,  as  to  himself,  the  light  of  life  ;  and  all 
that  he  can  possibly  gain  by  it  is,  relief  for  the  present  from  the 
fear  of  hell.  This  is  the  very  utmost — ^but  with  this,  remember, 
he  renounces  any  possible  expectation  of  heaven,  and  thus 
brings  his  being  down  to  a  level  with  the  beasts  that  perish. 
But,  my  hearers,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  religion,  let  who  will 
disbelieve  it.  There  are  such  places  as  heaven  and  hell,  in  spite 
of  all  the  efforts  of  all  the  infidels  that  have  been  since  Adam. 
Yes,  and  there  are  such  things  as  death  and  judgment  too,  to 
which  the  hardiest  unbeliever  must  come,  as  well  as  the  humblest 
Christian.  And  there  are  everlasting  burnings  for  sin,  which 
infidels  cannot  quench,  and  eternal  joys  for  righteousness,  which 
neither  unbelievers  nor  devils  can  deprive  them  of,  and  which 
these  shall  never  taste.  Well,  then,  is  it  enjoined  upon  Chris- 
tians, to  exhort  one  another  continually  against  the  deceitful- 
ness  of  sin,  and  the  following  arguments  may  serve  to  enforce 
this  duty,  and  as  an  application  of  the  subject. 

In  whatever  light  the  careless  and  the  thoughtless,  the  young 


DANGER  OF  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIN.        107 

and  the  gay,  the  libertine  and  the  infidel,  may  choose  to  view 
sin — to  the  Christian  it  presents  but  one  aspect.  To  him  it  is 
the  thing  which  God  abhors  ;  which  he  has  expressly  forbidden, 
and  will  everlastingly  punish.  To  him  it  is  the  cause  of  all  the 
misery  that  is  in  this  world,  bbth  to  himself  and  to  others  ;  and 
will  be  the  cause  of  all  the  horror  and  despair  which  the  finally 
impenitent  must  endure  for  ever  in  the  torments  of  hell.  If, 
therefore,  he  is  worthy  of  the  name  of  Christian,  if  he  possesses 
a  spark  of  that  benevolence  and  good  will  towards  his  fellow 
creatures,  which  is  the  spirit  of  religion,  he  will  not  remain 
listless  and  unconcerned  for  the  multitudes  of  immortal  souls 
all  around  him,  who  are  madly  driving  down  the  broad  and 
beaten  road  of  everlasting  destruction.  He  will  not  be  content 
with  his  example  merely,  but,  by  every  prudent  and  affectionate 
remonstrance  and  persuasion — by  every  argument  of  reason 
and  religion,  will  endeavour  to  prevail  with  those  he  has  access 
to  or  influence  over,  to  see  their  danger  and  to  escape  from  it. 

Another  consideration  to  enforce  this  duty  upon  Christians  is, 
that  their  own  experience  both  entitles  and  enables  them  to 
perform  it  with  effect. 

The  Christian  is  obliged  to  know  something  of  sin  and  its 
deceits,  from  dear-bought  experience.  He  must  have  felt  its 
strength,  detected  its  cunning,  proved  its  misery,  and  learned 
how  to  resist  and  overcome  its  power.  Upon  whom  then  more 
properly  can  this  duty  be  laid,  than  upon  those  who  are  thus 
qualified  by  experience,  to  warn,  exhort,  and  instruct  others — 
who  are  prompted  by  feeling,  and  furnished  with  knowledge,  to 
guide  the  unwary  and  inexperienced,  through  the  snares  and 
pit-falls  of  temptation,  acting  upon  depraved  and  unmastered 
passions. 

A  third  argument  to  enforce  this  duty,  is  to  be  drawn  from 
the  returns  the  Christian  owes  to  his  God  and  Saviour,  for  his 
own  deliverance  from  the  deceitfulness  and  power  of  sin. 

We  love  him  because  he  first  loved  us,  says  every  true  disciple 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  But,  if  a  man  say,  I  love  God, 
and  hateth  his  brother,  he  is  a  liar,  says  the  apostle,  for  he  that 
loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God, 
whom  he  hath  not  seen.     What  higher  proof,  then,  can  be  given 


108        DANGER  OP  BEING  HARDENED  IN  SIN. 

of  hatred,  that  is,  of  unconcern  for,  of  indifference  to  our 
brother,  on  the  one  hand — or  of  love,  that  is,  of  regard  for,  of 
affectionate  interest  in  him,  on  the  other,  than  the  neglect  or 
performance  of  this  Christian  duty.  Moreover,  Christians 
pray  continually,  thy  kingdom  come.  But  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  the  reign  of  righteousness,  the  prevalence  of  true  religion, 
which  can  only  come  to  pass  by  the  defeat  and  destruction  of 
Sin,  in  its  power  over  man. 

Do  we,  then,  wish  our  prayers  to  be  heard  and  answered  1  Do 
we  truly  desire  the  present  and  eternal  welfare  of  our  children, 
relations,  brethren,  friends,  and  fellow-creatures  1 — Are  we  in 
earnest  working  out  our  own  salvation  1  Let  us  remember,  my 
brethren,  that  it  is  an  indispensable  part  of  it  to  exhort  one 
another  daily,  while  it  is  called  to-day,  lest  any  be  hardened 
through  the  deceitfulness  of  sin. 

Now  unto  him  that  is  able  to  keep  you  from  falling,  and  to 
present  you  faultless  before  the  presence  of  his  glory,  with 
exceeding  joy — to  the  only  wise  God  our  Saviour — Father,  Son, 
and  HoLV  Ghost,  be  glory  and  majesty,  dominion  and  power, 
both  now  and  ever.     Amen. 


SERMON  X. 

WICKEDNESS  THE  CAUSE  OF  BLINDNESS. 

Daniel  xii.  10,  latter  part. 
"  And  none  of  the  wicked  shall  understand ;  but  the  wise  shall  tuiderstand." 

Whether  we  consider  these  words  as  an  elucidation  of  an 
effect  by  assigning  its  cause,  or  as  an  appointment  of  that  wisdom 
which  ruleth  over  all,  their  importance  to  us  is  just  the  same,  my 
brethren.  Their  truth  is  confirmed  by  observation  and  experi- 
ence of  human  conduct,  and  the  warning  and  instruction  to  be 
drawn  from  them  is  directly  practical.  Opposition  to  the  gospel 
is  here  assigned  to  its  true  cause,  the  wickedness  of  man,  and 
an  opposite  conduct  is  set  forth  as  the  consequence  of  a  serious 
consideration  of  revealed  truth. 

The  improvement  I  shall  endeavour  to  make  of  the  text,  there- 
fore, will  be,  to  show,  by  some  examples,  how  it  comes  to  pass 
that  the  practice  of  wickedness  shuts  the  understanding  against 
the  reception  of  divine  truth.  And  on  the  other  hand,  where- 
fore it  is,  that  a  virtuous  life  disposes  the  mind  to  receive  and 
the  heart  to  embrace  the  gospel,  and,  then,  conclude  with  some 
practical  inferences  from  the  subject. 

ti3nd  none  of  the  wicked  shall  understand ;  hut  the  wise  shall 
understand. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  show  by  some  examples,  how  it  comes  to 
pass,  that  the  practice  of  wickedness  shuts  the  understanding 
against  the  reception  of  divine  truth. 

With  whatever  variety  of  natural  disposition  we  may  come 
into  the  world,  my  brethren,  (and  I  am  disposed  to  think  that  it 
is  very  great,)  as  fallen  creatures,  our  ultimate  character  will 
depend  entirely  upon  the  care  and  pains  taken  to  form  it.  That 
the  seeds  of  sin  manifest  themselves  very  early  in  all,  is,  unhap- 
pily, too  true,  and,  therefore,  the  greater  responsibility  is  laid 
upon  those  who  have  the  care  and  charge  of  young  persons 


110  WICKEDNESS    THE    CAUSE    OF    BLINDNESS. 

committed  to  them.  For  though  the  corruptions  of  our  nature 
manifest  themselves  from  the  first,  yet  the  rich  provision  of 
divine  grace,  giving  effect  to  careful  instruction,  watchful  re- 
straint, and  judicious  correction,  is  fully  competent  to  subdue 
and  root  out  those  corruptions,  to  cherish  and  mature  good 
dispositions,  and  fortify  the  mind  to  resist  the  temptations  and 
perfect  the  virtues  of  active  life.  And  even  where  this  has  been 
neglected  there  is  yet  no  excuse  or  hcense  for  wickedness ;  for 
when  reason  is  matured  and  men  undertake  the  direction  of 
their  own  actions,  it  is  incumbent  on  them  to  reflect  upon  the 
end  they  have  in  view,  on  the  just  purposes  of  the  present  life, 
and  on  the  the  unspeakable  interests  of  the  life  that  is  to  come. 
These  are  proper  subjects  for  the  exercise  of  the  rational  facul- 
ties, and  are  in  such  a  sense  duties  of  the  highest  obligation 
that  there  is  no  accountable  being  who  does  not,  in  some  way, 
and  to  some  extent,  pass  them  in  review.  And  though  the 
difficulty  and  the  danger  of  making  a  wise  choice  is  greatly 
enhanced  by  the  previous  neglect,  yet  the  same  divine  grace  is 
still  present  to  lend  its  salutary  and  effectual  aid  in  favour  of 
religion  and  virtue.  The  practice  of  wickedness,  then,  is  always 
matter  of  choice,  and  hence  it  is  that  the  wicked  and  the  right- 
eous are  contrasted  in  the  text  and  throughout  the  Scriptures  by 
the  folly  or  the  wisdom  of  their  respective  pursuits.  J^one  of 
the  wicked  shall  understand,  but  the  wise  shall  understand. 

This  is  fully  exemplified  in  the  profligate  and  debauched 
of  all  ages.  However  acute  their  understandings  may  be  in 
other  things,  however  well  informed  their  minds  may  be  in 
general,  yet  on  this  subject  it  is  literally  true,  that  they  have  eyes 
and  see  not,  ears  have  they  yet  they  hear  not,  and  hearts  but 
they  understand  not.  The  natural,  indeed,  the  inevitable 
tendency  of  a  vicious  disposition  is,  to  corrupt  the  principles 
and  subvert  the  judgment.  Spiritual  things  cannot  be  discerned, 
however  clearly  propounded  ;  and  having  lost  all  relish  for  any 
thing  above  sense,  the  claims  and  the  duties,  the  hopes  and  the 
fears  of  religion  are  foolishness  unto  them.  How  often  do  we 
see  it  the  case,  my  hearers,  when  these  high,  and  holy,  and 
awful  things  are  proposed  to  such  persons,  that  they  can  by  no 
means  be  made  to  comprehend  them,  they  cannot  even  be 


WICKEDNESS    THE    CAUSE    OF    BLINDNESS.  Ill 

induced  to  consider  them — or,  if  they  venture  to  answer,  it  is  in 
such  wise  as  to  show,  that  they  have  become  vain  in  their  imag-ina- 
tions,  and  their  foolish  heart  is  darkened. 

But,  further,  the  love  of  sin,  and  the  practice  of  wickedness, 
not  only  blinds  men's  minds,  and  hinders  them  from  consider- 
ing and  applying  divine  truth,  but  it,  moreover,  prejudices  them 
against  it,  and  causes  them  even  to  hate  it,  and  become  its  pro- 
fessed enemies.  They  hate  to  be  reformed^  and,  therefore,  cast 
God's  uwrds  behind  them.  Their  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against 
God,  and,  therefore,  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed 
can  be.  The  person  who  gives  them  the  best  advice  comes  to 
be  considered  as  their  enemy,  because  he  tells  them  the  truth. 
They  knowingly  choose  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their 
deeds  are  evil,  and  reject  the  truth,  because  they  have  pleasure  in 
unrighteousness.  Thus  the  Scriptures  describe  the  effects  of 
resolved  outbreaking  wickedness,  and  give  a  most  sufficient 
reason  why  none  such  shall  or  can  understand ;  and  present, 
at  the  same  time,  a  most  awakening  warning  to  all  who,  by  ne- 
glect of  religion,  are  in  danger  of  coming  to  such  a  hopeless 
state  of  blindness  and  obstinate  rejection  of  saving  truth. 

Nothing  is  more  common  than  for  objections  to  be  raised  and 
entertained  against  religion  in  general,  from  some  supposed  dif- 
ficulty in  understanding  it ;  and  we  sometimes  hear  this  objection 
from  persons  who  do  not  manifest  that  depraved  and  vicious 
disposition  which,  in  the  language  of  the  world,  is  denominated 
wickedness.  It  is,  nevertheless,  very  certain,  my  brethren  and 
hearers,  that  much  depends  upon  the  inward  temper  of  the 
heart  for  the  attainment  of  religious  knowledge,  and  still  more 
for  the  profitable  application  of  it.  If,  therefore,  the  heart  be 
occupied  exclusively  with  something  alien  to  God,  this  will  con- 
stitute such  a  species  of  wickedness  as  will  prevent  the  under- 
standing of  divine  things. 

Of  this  description  are  worldly  mindedness  and  covetousness, 
with  all  similar  descriptions  of  inordinate  affection  ;  and  from 
persons  of  such  characters  it  is  that  we  most  commonly  hear 
this  objection.  But  did  they  consider  the  subject  with  any  se- 
riousness, they  must  soon  perceive  that  the  difficulty  is  with 
themselves,  and  not  in  religion. 


112  WICKEDNESS    THE    CAUSE    OF    BLINDNESS. 

The  covetous  man  has  set  up  an  idol  in  his  heart,  which 
usurps  the  place  due  to  Almighty  God  ;  and  the  worship  paid 
to  this  false  god  absorbing  all  the  faculties,  the  mind  becomes 
blinded  to  the  light  of  divine  truth,  and  this  inordinate  affection 
actually  swallows  up  all  others.  Hence  St.  Paul  calls  covet- 
ousness  idolatry,  and  points  out  its  invariable  effect  in  pervert- 
ing the  understanding  on  the  vital  subject  of  religion. — If  our 
gospel  he  hid,  says  he,  that  is,  be  difficult  to  understand,  it  is  hid 
to  them  that  are  lost.  A  better  rendering  of  the  words  would 
be,  through  the  things  which  perish.  In  whom — rather,  by 
which — the  god  of  this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  oj  them  which 
believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel  of  Christ,  ^vho 
is  the  Image  of  God,  should  shine  unto  them.  On  this  as  well 
as  on  other  accounts,  he  styles  the  love  of  money  the  root  of  all 
eviU^  Our  Lord  also  cautions  his  disciples  against  this  vice — 
Take  heed,  says  he,  and  beware  of  covetousness. 

In  like  manner,  the  effect  is  nearly  the  same  through  over- 
engagement  with  the  lawful  business  of  life.  When  the  farms 
and  the  merchandise  of  the  world  occupy  the  place  which  the  ho- 
nour of  God  and  the  care  of  our  souls  ought  to  possess,  the  life 
and  power  of  religion  is  unknown — its  forms  and  its  decencies 
may  be  kept  up,  but  we  understand  it  not — the  heart  is  gone 
after  its  covetousness,  and  no  room  is  left  for  the  Giver  of  every 
good  and  perfect  gift.  Hence  our  Saviour's  strong  admonitions 
against  over-carefulness  and  anxiety  about  worldly  accommoda- 
tions— Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow,  for  the  morrow  shall  take 
thought  for  the  things  of  itself.  But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom,  of 
God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you. 

Another  branch  of  that  wickedness  which  perverts  the  under- 
standing on  the  subject  of  religion,  and  blinds  the  mind  to  the 
beauty  of  holiness,  is  found  in  that  levity  and  thoughtlessness  of 
youth,  which  is  yet  free  from  the  grossness  of  outbreaking  pro- 
fligacy and  vice.  Persons  of  this  description  are  a  most  nume- 
rous body,  my  hearers,  and  the  effect  is  evidenced  by  the  com- 
paratively small  number  of  youth  who  manifest  any  concern  for 
their  souls  ;  which  surely  would  not  be  the  case,  were  it  not  for 
the  inevitable  consequences  of  carelessness  and  unconcern  on 


WICKEDNESS  THE  CAUSE  OF  BLINDNESS.       113 

the  subject  of  religion,  to  every  period  of  accountable  age.  The 
honour  of  God  and  the  care  of  the  soul  being  the  highest  duties 
of  rational  beings,  the  neglect  of  them  comes  very  properly  un- 
der the  general  denomination  of  wickedness.  Hence,  such  per- 
sons are  described  in  Scripture  as  lovers  of  pleasure  more  than 
lovers  o/GoD — as  dead  xohile  they  live — as  idlers^  xoandering  about 
from  house  to  house,  and  the  effects  are  such  as  to  increase  unlo 
more  ungodliness.  For  as  the  mind  is  dissipated  in  the  frivolous 
nothings  of  folly  and  fashion,  it  gradually  becomes  more  and 
more  indisposed  to,  indeed  incapable  of,  serious  thought ;  and 
all  that  relates  to  religion  grows  more  irksome  and  uninterest- 
ing, until  it  ceases  to  affect  the  mind  at  all. 

From  these  examples,  though  briefly  detailed,  we  may  learn, 
I  think,  the  meaning  of  the  text,  in  describing,  as  it  does,  the 
effect  of  every  kind  of  wickedness,  in  blinding  the  mind  ^and 
blunting  the  feelings  to  the  great  concerns  of  eternity  ;  and  be 
furnished  with  a  most  persuasive  argument  to  escape  from  so 
imminent  a  danger,  before  sin  hath  bound  us  to  our  ruin  with  a 
chain  which  cannot  be  broken.  For  in  addition  to  the  natural 
effects  of  the  love  and  practice  of  sin,  God  threatens  to  with- 
draw his  Holy  Spirit  from  such  as  go  on  in  their  wickedness — 
to  deliver  them  over  to  a  reprobate  viind — to  send  them  strong 
delusion,  that  they  should  believe  a  lie,  that  they  all  might  be 
damned  who  believed  not  the  truth,  but  had  pleasure  in  unright- 
eousness. 

Whoever,  therefore,  feels  disposed  to  escape  from  the  duties 
of  religion,  and  to  take  shelter  under  the  objection  that  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  understand,  let  him  thereby  be  warned  that  there  is 
something  greatly  wrong  within  him — that  he  is  deluded  by 
some  deceit  of  sin,  which,  unless  it  be  detected  and  put  away, 
will  blind  him  still  more.  And  this  is  certainly  the  cause  of  all 
opposition  and  objection  to  the  gospel.  For  no  fair  mind  caa 
possibly  object  to  the  philanthropy  and  morality  of  the  gospel. 
No  reasonable  mind  can  reject  the  proofs  by  which  it  is  con- 
firmed as  a  divine  revelation.  No  teachable  disposition  will  re- 
fuse to  be  made  wise  unto  salvation  ;  nor  will  any  sane  mind 
sport  with  the  sanctions  of  God's  righteous  judgment.  Yet 
with  all  this  is  the  person  chargeable  who  refuses  himself  to  the 

Vol.  II.— 15 


114 


WICKEDNESS    THE    CAUSE    OF    BLINDNESS. 


gospel,  either  througli  the  levity  of  youth,  the  engagements  of 
the  world,  or  the  love  of  sin  in  its  licentious  and  profligate  in- 
dulgences. In  all  these  cases,  however  great  their  variety, 
the  wicked  shall  not  understand,  both  from  the  natural  tendency 
of  vice  and  the  righteous  appointment  of  God  in  withdrawing 
his  Holy  Spirit, 

II.  Let  us,  in  the  next  place,  examine  wherefore  it  is  that 
a  virtuous  disposition  disposes  the  understanding  to  receive 
and  the  heart  to  embrace  the  gospel.  The  loise  shall  under- 
stand. 

In  the  study  of  every  human  science  there  is  some  previous 
temper,  some  particular  predisposition  of  mind,  which  gives 
greater  aptness,  as  well  as  inclination,  for  that  particular  science, 
and  enables  those  thus  predisposed,  to  understand  it  more  readily 
and  to  acquire  it  with  more  ease,  than  those  not  thus  inclined. 
The  same  holds  proportionally  true,  likewise,  in  the  divine  science 
of  religion.  A  teachable  disposition,  a  well  disposed  temper, 
an  equitable,  fair,  and  charitable  spirit,  and  a  just  sense  of  the 
necessity  and  reasonableness  of  obeying  the  commands  of  God, 
IS  the  first  principle  and  beginning  of  religion — the  best  prepa- 
rative to  open  the  understanding,  to  make  men  study  divine 
truths  with  satisfaction — to  comprehend  them  readily,  and  judge 
01  them  rightly.  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  ofioisdom, 
says  the  Psalmist ;  a  good  understanding  have  all  they  that 
do  his  commandments;  his  jiraise  endureth  for  ever.  And  our 
Saviour  compares  a  virtuous  disposition  to  good  ground. — Those 
on  the  good  ground  are  they  who,  in  an  honest  and  good  heart, 
having  heard  the  loord,  keep  it,  and  bring  forth  fruit  with 
patience.  Such  persons,  also,  he  elsewhere  calls  his  sheep, 
and  describes  them  as  hearing  his  voice  and  following  him  as 
their  shepherd. 

But,  further,  as  the  knowledge  of  any  science  is  only  profit- 
able according  as  it  is  reduced  to  practice  in  like  manner  the 
practice  of  righteousness  is  the  true  and  profitable  improvement 
of  religious  knowledge.  As  in  human  sciences  the  man  who 
applies  what  he  already  knows  is  constantly  adding  to  his  know- 
ledge and  acquiring  more  extended  and  perfect  views  of  that 
science,  so,  likewise,  in  the  science  of  religion,  practice  and 


WICKEDNESS  THE  CAUSE  OF  BLINDNESS.       115 

experience  in  the  course  of  a  virtuous  life  and  in  the  obedience 

of  God's  commandments,  continually  extend  and  enlarge  the 

understanding  of  and  capacity  for  the  things  of  God.     He  that 

keepeth  the  laio  of  the  Lord,  getteth  the  understanding  thereof,  says 

the  wise  son  of  Sirach.     Evil  men  understand  not  judgment ;  hut 

they  that  seek  the  Lord  understand  all  things,  says  Solomon,  / 

have  more  understanding  than  all  my  teachers  ;  for  thy  testimonies 

are  my  meditation.     I  understand  more  than  the  ancients,  because 

I  keep  thy  precepts,  says  David.     If  ye  continue  in  my  word,  says 

the  Saviour,  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you 

free.    Thus,  the  wise  shall  understand.     For,  in  the  religion  of 

the  gospel  there  is  no  man  truly  wise  and  knowing  but  he  that 

lives  hke  a  Christian. 

But,  further,  in  addition  to  the  natural  tendency  of  a  virtuous 
disposition  to  lead  men  to  the  knowledge  and  love  of  divine 
things,  God  hath  promised  the  assistance  of  his  Holy  Spirit  to 
enlighten  and  direct  all  who  sincerely  desire  to  know  and  to  do 
his  will.  If  any  man  will  do  his  unll,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine 
whether  it  be  of  God.  If  ye  love  me  keep  my  commandments  ; 
and  I  will  pray  the  Father^  and  he  shall  give  you  another  comforter, 
that  he  may  abide  with  you  for  ever;  even  the  Spirit  of  Truth.  Jlnd 
when  he,  the  Spirit  op  Truth  is  come,  he  xoill  guide  you  into  all 
truth.  Hence  St.  John,  exhorting  Christians  against  the  doctrine  of 
those  false  teachers  who  had  left  the  Church,  tells  them.  Ye  have 
an  unction  from  the  Holy  One,  and  ye  know  all  things.  I  have  not 
written  unto  you  because  ye  knotv  not  the  truth,  but  because  ye 
know  it,  and  that  no  lie  is  of  the  truth.  But  the  anointing  which 
ye  have  received  of  him  abideth  in  you,  and  ye  need  not  that  any 
man  teach  you  :  but  as  the  same  anointing  teacheth  you  of  all  things, 
and  is  truth  and  is  no  lie,  and  even  as  it  hath  taught  you  ye  shall 
abide  in  him. 

Thus  is  the  virtuous  man  secured  against  all  fatal  error  and 
furnished  for  all  saving  truth,  not  only  by  the  natural  tendency 
of  his  pursuits,  but  by  the  special  appointment  of  the  only  wise 
and  just  governor  of  the  universe  ;  while  the  wicked,  in  all  their 
various  shades,  by  the  operation  of  the  righteous  and  unchange- 
able constitution  of  moral  causes,  are  precluded,  by  their  own 
perverse  abuse  of  common  mercies,  from  the  blessing  annexed 


116       WICKEDNESS  THE  CAUSE  OF  BLINDNESS. 

to  them,  both  here  and  hereafter.  Jlnd  none  oflhc  inched  shall 
understand,  hut  the  ivise  shall  understand.  Of  which  words 
our  Saviour  himself  has  given  the  true  and  awakening 
exposition,  in  his  application  of  the  parable  of  the  talents. — For 
unto  him  that  hath  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  abundance  ; 
but  from  him  that  hath  not,  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which 
he  hath. 

From  what  has  been  said  the  following  inferences  seem  plain 
and  obvious,  my  brethren  : 

First,  the  religion  of  the  gospel  is  not  the  creature  of  impulse 
and  feeling,  arbitrarily  imparted  once  for  all,  and  to  be  found 
most  readily  where  reason  and  understanding  are  the  farthest 
removed  from  their  just  influence.  But  it  is  the  happy  and 
enduring  fruit  of  knowledge  diligently  sought,  wisely  applied, 
faithfully  improved,  and  virtuously  practised.  It  is,  therefore, 
a  gradual  attainment,  and  as  such,  requires  and  is  provided  with 
all  those  means  which  the  goodness  of  God  has  prepared  and 
appointed  to  that  end.  Now,  these  means  consist  of  our  own 
exertions  and  of  his  grace  ;  to  separate  them  is  to  deprive  our- 
selves of  both.  He  that  would  reach  heaven  in  his  own  strength 
will  nerer  rise,  even  to  the  view  of  its  blessed  mansions  of  glory  ; 
while  he  that  waits  for  divine  grace,  without  putting  forth  the 
strength  already  given,  and  which  is  to  be  found  in  reading,  medita- 
tion, prayer,  and  penitence,  will  wait  in  vain.  God  hath  no  need  of 
the  sinful  man,  therefore  he  must  be  sought  unto  by  all  such. 
They  must  come  to  him  for  this  blessing,  without  which  we  can 
do  nothing,  that  is,  nothing  that  we  can  do  is  of  any  worth  with- 
out it.  Hence,  we  are  instructed  and  exhorted  to  work  out  our 
salvation  with  fear  and  trembling  ; — For  it  is  God  that  worketh  in 
us  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure. — To  add  to  our  faith 
virtue,  knowledge,  temperance,  patience,  godliness,  brotherly  kind-> 
ness,  charity,  with  all  diligence. — Thus  making  our  calling  and 
election  sure, 

Secondly,  as  the  continuing  to  neglect  both  our  duty  and 
our  interest,  in  securing  the  salvation  of  our  souls,  is  showed  by 
the  text  to  be  followed  by  increasing  blindness  and  corruption  of 
mind,  to  the  final  destruction  of  all  spiritual  sense  and  feeling, 
it  follows,  as  a  most  reasonable  inference,  that  all  delay  to  turn 


WICKEDNESS  THE  CAUSE  OF  BLINDNESS.       117 

from  such  a  ruinous  course,  is  a  further  tempting  of  God,  and 
an  undeniable  proof  of  that  Avickedness  which  shall  not  under- 
stand. 

All  warning,  my  dear  hearers,  is  given  for  us  to  profit  by, 
and  our  reason  is  to  judge  of  the  just  application  of  that  warning. 
To  your  reason,  then,  1  appeal,  to  the  sober  reason  of  all 
present,  in  whatever  degree  the  text  finds  you,  whether  of  the 
thoughtless,  the  over-engaged,  or  the  actually  vicious.  Are  the 
pursuits  you  are  occupied  with,  such  as  God  will  approve  of 
and  reward  hereafter  1  If  they  are,  if  they  are  such  as  you  can 
bring  to  the  standard  of  his  word,  and  find  them  there  approved; 
yea,  further,  if  they  are  such  as  your  own  experience  shows  to 
be  profitable  for  the  advancement  of  spiritual  light  in  your 
minds  and  the  increase  of  the  power  of  God  over  your  hearts 
and  lives,  then  cleave  to  them,  and  engage  yet  more  diligently  in 
them  ;  but  if  they  are  not,  if  your  own  reason  and  conscience, 
if  the  observation  and  experience  of  all  who  are  competent  to 
judge,  above  all,  if  the  word  and  wisdom  of  God  testifies  with 
these,  that  they  are  hourly  sinking  you  deeper  into  darkness  and 
delusion,  hourly  carrying  you  away  further  from  God,  from 
hope,  and  from  happiness  ;  what  then — what  says  reason,  what 
says  conscience,  what  says  religion,  what  say  the  united  voices  of 
the  wise  and  the  good  in  all  ages  1  Forsake  the  foolish  and  live ; 
make  no  tarrying  to  turn  to  the  Lord  ;  we  have  sinned,  ice  have 
done  wickedly,  and,  therefore,  the  icay  of  truth  is  hid  from  us.  And 
what  says  the  mercy  of  God  to  those  Avho  turn  to  him  in 
righteousness  1  When  the  wicked  man  turneth  away  from  his 
wickedness  that  he  hath  committed,  and  doeih  that  which  is  lawful 
and  right,  he  shall  save  his  soul  alive.  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  So7i,  that  ivhosoever  believeth  in 
him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.  And  lest 
this  should  not  be  thought  warning  and  encouragement 
sufficient,  by  the  sin-darkened  hearts  of  a  crooked  and  perverse 
generation,  what  says  this  only  begotten  Son  to  all  under  the 
gospel  1  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest ; — him  that  cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no 
wise  cast  out.  And  what  says  this  merciful  Saviour  even  to 
the  blindness  of  sin  and  unbelief?     /  am  the  light  of  the  world; 


118       WICKEDNESS  THE  CAUSE  OF  BLINDNESS. 

he  that  folloioeth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the 
light  of  life ;  he  that  hath  ears  to  hear  let  him  hear ;  and  he  that 
hath  a  heart  to  jierceive  let  him  understand  ;  and  whosoever  will, 
let  him  come  and  take  of  the  water  of  life  freely. 

To-day,  then,  if  ye  will  hear  his  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts, 
hut  turn  unto  the  Lord  and  he  will  have  mercy  upon  you,  and  to 
our  God  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon. 


SERMON  XI. 

THE    jailer's    question    TO    ST.    PAUL. 

Acts  xvi.  30,  latter  clause. 
"  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  1" 

Some  degree  of  concern,  and  even  of  anxiety,  as  to  the 
failure  or  success  of  important  interests,  is  inseparable,  I  believe, 
ray  brethren,  from  our  present  condition.  While  hope  and  fear 
vibrate  in  uncertainty,  the  restlessness  of  insecurity  must  be 
felt,  and  will  manifest  a  corresponding  influence  upon  the 
thoughts  and  upon  the  conduct.  That  this  concern  and  anxiety 
is  more  frequent  as  well  as  stronger  in  degree  respecting  our 
temporal  than  our  spiritual  interests,  is,  unhappily,  the  expe- 
rience of  every  Christian  land.  And  while  it  is  acknowledged 
to  be  altogether  Inconsistent  with  the  relative  importance  of  the 
two  interests,  but  feeble  efforts  are  made  to  counteract  it  ;  and 
the  consequence  certainly  follows,  that  it  increases  in  power, 
and  ultimately  excludes  every  spiritual  desire  and  inclination. 
Now  though  this  is  known  to  be  the  effect,  and  notwithstanding 
the  admonitions  of  Scripture  are  full  and  express  against  undue 
or  misplaced  anxiety  as  to  worldly  condition,  the  things  that  are 
seen  prevail  over  the  things  that  are  not  seen,  and,  in  a  variety  of 
ways,  blind  the  minds  of  them  that  believe  not,  to  their  everlasting 
ruin.  Yet  public  opinion,  as  well  as  private  inclination,  is  dis- 
posed to  treat  this  departure  from  God,  or  rather  this  refusal  to 
come  to  God,  leniently,  and  in  the  common  guilt  to  lose  sight  of 
the  common  danger  ;  and  because  some  respect  can  be  and  is 
shown  to  the  outward  observances  of  Christianity,  and  because 
less  of  open  out-breaking  wickedness  is  perpetrated  by  the 
careful  and  worldly-minded  than  by  the  careless  and  dissolute, 
therefore  the  delusion  is  cherished  that  the  high  and  holy  hope 
of  the  gospel  may,  for  such,  be  relied  upon. 

There  are  however,  some  minds  so  overrun  with  levity  and 


120  THE  jailer's  question  to  st.  paul. 

thoughtlessness,  that  they  appear  impenetrable  to  every  thing 
like  serious  impression,  or  continued  application.  Trifles  alone 
interest  them  and  engage  their  activity.  But  of  such,  no  man 
augurs  well,  nor  is  much  disposition  felt  to  admit  the  excuse 
which  may  be  offered  on  the  ground  of  natural  disposition ;  it  is 
condemned  as  inconsistent  with  either  feeling  or  reflection,  and 
as  precluding  any  reasonable  hope  of  usefulness  or  success 
in  life.  This  judgment,  I  believe,  is  correct  in  the  general ;  for 
experience  and  observation  concur  in  proving,  that  until  this 
frivolous,  inconsiderate  state  of  mind  is  cured,  the  expectation 
of  any  thing  profitable  to  themselves  or  useful  to  others  is 
hardly  to  be  entertained. 

Thus  do  we  reason  and  decide,  my  brethren,  and  correctly 
too,  as  regards  the  interests  of  time.  But  wherefore  is  it,  that 
we  stop  short  of  the  extent  to  which  this  mode  of  reasoning 
would  carry  us — that  we  are  not  instructed  by  the  analogy  which 
temporal  things  bear  to  those  which  are  eternal,  and  are  not 
moved  thereby  to  feel  the  same  anxiety,  and  put  forth  the  same 
diligence  for  the  welfare  of  our  souls,  which  we  manifest  for  that 
of  our  bodies?  Wherefore  do  the  careful,  and  the  thoughtful,  and 
the  calculating  men  of  business,  condemn  the  equally  busy, 
though  careless  and  inconsiderate  men  of  pleasure,  as  it  is 
called  1  If  their  pursuits  are  alike  bounded  by  the  present  life, 
wherein  do  they  differ  in  event,  as  respects  the  great  purpose  of 
our  being  ?  This  is  the  touchstone  of  all  wordly  condition — the 
test  of  all  present  occupation  to  accountable  beings — for,  surely, 
when  compared  with  eternity,  the  gravest  as  well  as  the  gayest, 
the  weightiest  as  well  as  the  more  trifling  pursuits  of  the  world, 
are  alike  frivolous  and  unworthy  the  exclusive  regard  of  an 
immortal  soul.  In  the  sight  of  God  what  matters  it,  my  hearers, 
whether  our  hearts  are  set  on  business  or  on  pleasure,  during  the 
four-score  years  of  our  limited  pilgrimage'?  These  equally 
usurp  the  place  which  he  alone  should  fill,  and  they  alike  mili- 
tate against  the  great  and  declared  purpose  of  his  wisdom  and 
mercy  in  permitting  the  world  to  continue,  and  in  granting  to 
its  inhabitants  opportunity  and  means  to  regain  the  bright 
inheritance  which  by  sin  was  forfeited,  and  escape  the  condem- 
nation which  by  sin  was  incurred.     These  are  considerations 


THE    jailer's    question    TO    ST.    PAUL.  121 

which  sweep  into  nothing  the  anxieties  of  the  careful,  and  the 
frivolities  of  the  thoughtless ;  which  conclude,  unanswerably, 
against  all  false  estimates  of  moral  condition,  as  grounds  of  hope 
towards  God  ;  and,  if  allowed  to  operate,  force  from  the  convicted 
conscience  the  alarmed  exclamation  of  my  text —  What  must  I 
do  to  be  saved  1 

Happy,  my  brethren,  yea,  thrice  happy  for  those  who,  either 
by  some  startling  providence  of  God  or  by  the  equally  effica- 
cious and  more  ordinary  method  of  his  grace  operating  through 
the  written  word,  are  brought  to  this  point,  and  awakened  to 
their  true  condition  before  the  dream  of  life  is  surprised  by 
the  realities  of  eternity.  For  if  there  be  a  life  beyond  this  pre- 
sent mortal  existence,  if  death  do  not  put  a  final  period  to  our 
being,  if  joy  or  sorrow,  and  for  ever,  too,  await  us  beyond  the 
grave,  what  equally  important  inquiry  can  occupy  the  attention 
of  accountable  beings  with  that  of  the  condition  into  which  we 
shall  pass  when  we  drop  these  mortal  bodies  and  enter  upon  a 
new  and  never-ending  existence. 

From  this  passage  of  Scripture,  therefore,  I  will  first  lay  before 
you  some  reflections  calculated  to  explain  and  apply  the  text, 
and  then  give  the  answer  to  this  anxious  and  most  important 
inquiry —  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? 

I.  These  words,  we  know,  my  hearers,  were  uttered  by  the 
jailer  of  Philippi,  on  occasion  of  the  midnight  earthquake  which 
attended  the  imprisonment  of  Paul  and  Silas,  because  of  the 
religion  which  they  preached.  This  was  an  event  very  alarming 
in  itself,  and,  connected  with  the  circumstances  which  preceded 
the  arrest  of  the  apostle  and  his  companion,  well  calculated  to 
produce  that  deep  impression  of  guilty  fear,  which  imminent  dan- 
ger awakens  in  the  conscience  of  the  sinner.  The  man,  indeed, 
was  a  Heathen ;  but  he  was  not, therefore,  without  those  apprehen- 
sions of  futurity  which  are  inseparable  from  human  nature.  The 
doctrine  of  those  servants  of  Christ  had  been  the  subject  of 
attention  in  the  city,  and  was  doubtless  known  to  him.  And 
the  miraculous  attestation  to  its  truth  which  the  earthquake 
afforded,  produced,  at  once,  full  conviction  of  his  danger  as  a 
sinner  ignorant  of  God  and  unprepared  to  meet  his  righteous 
judgment  ;    but    with    hope    of  deliverance    through    those 

Vol.  II.— 16 


122  THE    jailer's    question    to    ST.    PAUL. 

heralds  of  mercy,  whose  prayers  and  praises  were  thus  visibly 
answered. 

Are  we,  therefore,  to  expect  such  extraordinary  manifesta- 
tions of  divine  power  now,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  in  order  to 
awaken  men  to  their  danger  as  sinners,  and  convert  them  to 
God  1  No,  by  no  means.  On  the  contrary,  we  know  that 
miraculous  interposition  has  long  been  withdrawn  from  the 
gospel,  and  that  the  pretence  to  it,  in  any  shape,  is  a  mark  of 
Anti- Christ.  We  also  know,  that  even  in  the  age  of  miracles 
all  conversions  were  not  thus  produced,  and  the  probability  is, 
that. such  were  few  in  proportion  to  the  whole  number  of 
converts  to  the  faith.  Of  this  we  have  a  particular  instance  in 
this  same  city  of  Philippi,  under  the  same  ministers,  in  the 
conversion  of  Lydia,  by  the  ordinary  operation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  disposing  the  heart  to  believe  and  obey  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus. 

With  the  proof  of  divine  origin  for  Christianity,  confirmed  by 
centuries  of  opposition  and  success,  and  with  a  recorded  Scrip- 
ture, established  as  the  word  of  God  by  the  highest  attestation, 
men  are  not  now  to  wait  or  look  for  miraculous  displays  of  the 
Spirit,  and  those  who  do,  will  wait  and  look  in  vain  for  aught 
but  the  deceits  of  an  enthusiast's  imagination.  The  providences 
of  God  are,  indeed,  so  ordered  as  to  work  together  with  the 
warning  and  instruction  of  his  holy  word,  to  lead  men  to  repent- 
ance, so  great  is  his  mercy  to  us  ward  ;  but  independent  of  this 
it  is  now  made  the  duty  of  all  men,  every  where,  to  believe  the 
gospel,  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the  will  of  God,  to  repent 
and  cease  from  sin,  and  to  pray  earnestly  for  the  light  and 
succour  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  to  make  his  word  Ufe  and  power  to 
their  souls. 

The  effect  of  thus  obeying  the  divine  precepts  is  just  as 
certain  as  the  promise  of  God  to  bless  the  means  of  grace,  faith- 
fully used,  is  sure  and  unbroken.  And  if  men  were  only  as 
desirous  to  be  saved  as  God  is  that  they  should  be  converted  in 
order  thereto,  the  ordinary  means  of  grace  would  be  just  as 
efficient  without  as  with  those  extraordinary  operations,  which, 
after  all,  derive  their  whole  moral  effect  from  the  influence  of 
the  Holy  Ghost, 


THE    jailer's    question    to    ST.    PAUL.  123 

The  words  of  the  text  also  suggest  to  us  the  hopeless  condi- 
tion of  mankind  by  nature.  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved? 
Hence,  it  appears,  that  in  his  actual  condition  the  jailer  was  not 
saved,  that  he  was  made  sensible  of  this,  that  he  considered  it  a 
state  of  great  danger,  and  was  prompted  to  seek  deliverance 
from  it.  Now  it  is  very  certain  that  the  earthquake  could  not, 
of  itself,  do  this.  But  the  discoveries  of  the  gospel,  as  preached 
by  St.  Paul,  applied  to  the  conscience  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
were  fully  competent  to  show  the  true  condition  of  man  as  a 
fallen  creature,  and  of  himself  as  one  of  that  guilty  race. 
Reflection  and  self-examination  could  not  fail  to  strengthen  this 
conviction  of  divine  truth,  which  the  earthquake  confirmed,  by 
showing  him  the  imminence  of  his  danger,  and,  by  bringing  his 
fears  to  a  point,  made  him  a  sincere  supplicant  for  the  light  of 
life.  The  words  of  the  text,  then,  are  not  altogether  the  conse- 
quence of  fear  and  alarm,  but  the  result  of  reflection  on  previous 
information,  quickened  into  effect  by  a  visible  display  of  the 
power  of  God  ;  nor  yet  are  they  to  be  confined  to  this  or  to 
any  other  extraordinary  instance  of  conversion  to  God,  but, 
either  in  themselves  or  in  the  sentiment  which  they  so  strongly 
express,  ought  to  be  the  heartfelt  language  of  every  child  of 
Adam  to  whom  the  word  of  this  salvation  is  sent. 

The  leading  discoveries  of  the  gospel  are,  the  fall  of  man  by 
the  commission  of  sin,  the  corruption  of  his  nature,  his  conse- 
quent separation  from  God  and  condemnation  to  death  temporal 
and  eternal ;  and  the  recovery  of  this  fallen  creature  by  the 
undertaking  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  his  consequent  reprieve 
from  the  execution  of  the  sentence,  with  ,  the  provision  of 
adequate  means  for  his  renewal  and  sanctification  by  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  These  are  the  great  and  momentous  truths 
which  are  commanded  to  be  preached  among  all  nations  for  the 
obedience  of  faith,  which  every  man  must  believe  and  apply  to 
himself,  and  from  which  it  follows,  that  the  inquiry  of  my  text, 
must,  at  some  period,  be  the  personal  inquiry  of  all  who  shall 
ever  come  to  God  on  the  terms  of  the  gospel.  As  fallen 
creatures  we  come  into  life,  my  dear  hearers  ;  as  fallen  creatures 
we  shall  pass  out  of  this  present  short  and  uncertain  existence 
into  endless  separation  from  God,  unless  these  discoveries  of 


124  THE    jailer's    question    to    ST.    PAUL. 

divine  mercy  are  so  realized  as  to  convince  us  of  the  one  truth, 
in  such  wise  as  to  bring  us  to  desire  the  other  with  all  the 
intensity  of  a  heart  that  feels  its  own  ruin  and  hopelessness 
without  help  from  God. 

Now,  who  is  here  present  to  whom  these  discoveries  are  not 
made  1  who  among  you  is  ignorant  of  these  awful  truths,  and 
incapable  of  drawing  the   just  conclusions  from  them  1    and 
which  of  you  knows  not  that  death  and  judgment,  that  heaven 
and  hell  await  the  use  made  of  them  by  accountable  beings  1 
And  yet  how  few,  comparatively,  have  ever  seriously  put  to  them- 
selves the  question  of  my  text,  have  ever  followed  out  the 
occasional  misgivings  of  their  own  hearts,  the  alarms  of  sickness 
and  danger,  and  the  warnings  of  the  word  of  God,  so  as  to  meet 
fairly,  and  faithfully  to  consider  the  state  of  their  souls  as  saved 
or  lost  1     Under  such  circumstances,  my  friends,  u^hy  stand  ye 
here  all  the  day  idle  1     Do  you  wait  for  some  convulsion   of 
nature — some  sign  from  heaven  to  startle  you  into  salvation  ] 
Is  not  the  veracity  of  God  sufficient  for  your  faith  to  build  the 
commanded  duties  of  religion  upon  1  sufficient  for  you  to  choose 
that  good  part  which,  even  reason  teaches,  may  be  gain  and  cannot 
be  loss  1  Is  God's  command  to  repent  and  believe  the  gospel  of  no 
force  without  a  sign  from  heaven  ]     O   deceive  not  your  own 
souls,  and  cloak  not  your  love  of  sin  by  pretending  an  insufficient 
revelation.     Know  ye  not,  that  they  who  continued  to  require 
more  signs,  in  the  midst  of  signs  and  wonders,  were  left  to  the 
hardness  of  their  own  deceitful  hearts  1     A  wicked  and  adulter- 
ous generation  asketh  after  a  sign,  but  there  shall  no  sign  be  given 
unto  it  but  the  sign  of  the  prophet  Jonas.     And  have  you  not  that 
sign  in  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  virtue 
of  which  only  the  gospel  with  all  its  blessings  has  come  unto 
you  ?     O  beware,  lest  that  come  upon  you  which  is  written — 
Behold  ye  despisers,  and  ivonder  and  perish,  for  I  work  a  work  in 
your  days,  a  work  which  ye  shall  in  no  wise  believe,  though  a  man 
declare  it  unto  you.  A  work,  indeed,  shall  be  wrought  in  confirm- 
ation of  the  gospel,  which  you  shall  see  but  it  will  then  be  too 
late  to  profit  by  it.     An   earthquake  you  shall  have,   in   the 
convulsions  of  an  expiring  world,  when  the  earth  and  the  sea 
shall  give  up  their  dead ;  a  sign  from  heaven,  also,  you  shall  have 


THE  jailer's    question    TO    ST.    PAUL.  125 

in  the  Son  of  man  comins?  in  the  clouds,  with  power  and  great 
glory.     How  will  you  then  feel,  how  will  you  then  look  back 
upon  the  precious  opportunities  now  slighted,   and  curse  the 
wilful  unbelief  which  has  betrayed  you  to  perdition.      O  let  the 
overwhelming  thought   now  fix    the    commanding   truth    upon 
your  conscience,  and  occupy  your  meditations  until  it  draws 
from  your  heart  the  solemn  inquiry,  ichat  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? 
For  the  text,  furthermore,  suggests  the  reflection,  that  there 
is  something  to  be  done  on  our  part,  in  order  to  our  being  saved. 
The  jailer  was  conscious  that  as  he  was,  he  was  not  saved — 
was  not  in  a  state  of  favour  with  God — and  this  very  conscious- 
ness, as  it  was  the  ground  of  his  alarm  and  inquiry,  so  was  it 
the  entrance  to  his  salvation.     Ought  not,  then,  the  same  con- 
sciousness to   produce  the  same  effect  now,  and   bring  every 
person  who  has  not  a  well-grounded  Scriptural  hope  of  God's 
favour  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  so  to  doubt  the  safety 
of  his  condition,  as  to  inquire  scrupulously  into  it,  holding  him- 
self in  readiness  to  forego  whatever  is  in  opposition  to  the  gospel, 
and  to  embrace  whatever  it  requires  ?     This  appears  to  have 
been  the  temper  of  the  jailer,  and,  surely,  it  ought  to  be  the  dispo- 
sition of  all  who,  like  him,  have  reason  to  fear  their  condition 
for  hereafter  to  be  either  dangerous  or  doubtful.     Religion,  my 
dear  hearers,  the  religion  of  Jesus   Christ  is  not  an  abstract 
speculation  of  the  intellectual  faculty,  but  a  system  of  practical 
truth  for  personal  observance  and  improvement.      What  must  I 
do  to  be  saved  1     What  is  my  particular  duty  ]     What  am  I  to 
learn,  and  believe,  and  do,  in  order  to  escape  everlasting  destruc- 
tion and   obtain  eternal  life  ?     But  this  is  the   commencement 
only — the  first  fruits  of  a  truly  awakened   sinner,  of  a  sincere 
seeker  after  God,  which  must  be  followed  up  by  doing  whatso- 
ever is  commanded  in  the  gospel.    How  thoroughly  at  variance, 
then,  with  this   active  engagement  on  so  high  an  interest,  is  the 
loose  indifference  of  these  latter  days  to  the  discoveries  of  the 
gospel,  to  the  high  and  holy  hope  which  it  gives  to  man  1    What 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  are  flattering  themselves  with 
the  benefit  of  this  hope,  who  have   never   resorted  to   those 
appointed  means  of  grace  by  which  it  is  certified  and  maintained. 


126  THE    jailer's    question    to    ST.    PAUL. 

and  have  yet  to  ask  themselves  the  vital  question — What  must 
I  do  to  be  saved  ?  What  numbers  among  ourselves  leave  this 
great  interest  uncared  for,  while  they  give  themselves  without 
reserve  to  the  world,  in  its  business  or  in  its  pleasures.  How 
shall  I  get  rich  1  How  shall  I  secure  my  temporal  interests  'I 
How  shall  I  compass  the  pleasures  of  the  world  %  What  shall  I 
eat?  what  shall  I  drink  1  and  wherewithal  shall  I  be  clothed] 
are  allowed  to  swallow  up  the  anxieties  and  pervert  the  exertions 
which  eternity  calls  for,  and  without  which  it  must  be  miserable 
and  undone. 

And  wherefore  is  it  thus  1 — wherefore  is  it,  that  beings  who 
can  reason,  and  calculate,  and  discern,  and  exert  themselves  for 
a  present  interest,  will  not  apply  the  same  faculties  to  that  which 
is  future,  and  on  surer  grounds  of  success  combine  them  all  into 
one  continued  effort  in  working  out  their  everlasting  salvation  1 
Alas  !  it  is  for  the  very  reason  which  should  constrain  them  to 
do  otherwise.  It  is  because  they  are  fallen  creatures,  with  cor- 
rupt hearts,  blinded  minds,  and  perverted  desires.  It  is  because 
they  will  not  receive  the  truth,  even  from  God.  Because  they 
will  not  come  to  the  light  which  his  holy  word  sheds  over  their 
condition,  and  consider  and  apply  its  gracious  and  glorious 
discoveries  to  themselves.  It  is  because  they  will  not  pray  for 
the  help  and  succour  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  lead  them  to  the 
truth,  and  make  it  effectual  to  the  renewal  of  their  hearts.  And, 
above  all,  it  is  because  they  do  not  cease  from  sin,  but  resist  the 
godly  motions  and  admonitions  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  their 
consciences,  doing  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace,  and  not 
because  they  cannot  do  otherwise,  or  are  not  aware  that  they 
ought  to  act  otherwise.  This  is  the  condemnation,  that  light  has 
come  into  the  world  but  men  loved  darkness  rather  than  light, 
because  their  deeds  were  evil.  No  one,  under  the  light  of  the 
gospel,  can  plead  ignorance  of  the  will  of  God.  No  one  under 
the  grace  of  the  gospel  can  plead  inability  to  do  the  will  of  God. 
His  wisdom  hath  left  us  all  without  excuse,  my  friends,  and  his 
command  hath  made  it  the  first,  the  highest,  the  most  immediate 
duty  of  every  soul  who  hears  its  joyful  sound,  to  inquire,  as  for 
life — What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?     God  grant  it  may  be  so 


THE    jailer's    question    TO    ST.  PAUL.  127 

impressed  upon  your  hearts  this  da)',  that  we  may  hear  the 
welcome  question  from  all  who  have  hitherto  heen  negligent  of 
their  souls. 

II.  I  come  now,  as  was  proposed,  to  give  the  answer  to  the 
inquiry  made  in  my  text. 

That  it  is  in  our  power  to  answer  it  ought  to  be  a  subject  of 
the  deepest  thankfulness,  my  brethren  and  hearers  ;  and  it  may 
serve,  perhaps,  to  awaken  a  higher  sense  of  what  we  owe  to 
God  for  this  distinction,  to  reflect  what  our  condition  would  be 
were  we  deprived  of  it.  What  a  dark  and  dismal  gloom  would 
settle  over  our  prospects  for  hereafter,  and  how  heavily  the  soul 
would  drag  through  a  weary  existence  to  the  painful  uncertainty 
of  an  unknown  eternity.  It  may  serve,  also,  to  startle  those 
into  reflection,  who,  having  such  great  things  provided  for  them 
by  the  love  of  Christ,  yet  neither  ask  the  question  nor  seek 
for  the  answer.     God  grant  that  they  may  now  give  heed  to  it. 

The  direct  answer  is  given  in  very  few  words  in  Scripture, 
and  both  by  our  Lord  himself  and  by  St.  Paul,  in  the  same 
terms.  To  the  question  from  the  Jews —  What  shall  we  do,  that 
ice  might  work  the  icork  of  God  1  Our  Lord  replied.  This 
is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  him  ichom  he  hath  sent.  And 
to  the  question  from  the  jailer  of  Philippi,  What  must  I  do  to  he 
saved?  St.  Paul  rephed,  Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and 
thou  shall  he  saved.  But  however  briefly  expressed,  the  answer 
comprises  the  whole  body  of  Christian  doctrine  and  practice, 
and  must  be  understood  by  us  as  if  he  had  said.  You  must  be- 
heve  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,  the  only  Saviour  of 
sinners ;  you  must  receive  his  doctrine,  obey  the  laws  of  his 
kingdom,  and  follow  the  bright  example  of  his  holy  life,  if  you 
would  be  saved.  To  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  then 
to  the  attainment  of  eternal  salvation,  will  include  faith,  obe- 
dience, and  perseverance. 

First,  of  faith. — This,  as  the  root  of  all  religious  attain- 
ment and  the  entrance  to  the  privileges  of  the  gospel,  is  indis- 
pensable ;  for,  as  he  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  he  is 
so  he  that  cometh  to  God  through  his  only  begotten  Son,  must 
believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is,  both  in  nature  and  office,  what  the 
Scriptures  represent  him  to  be.     This  is  expressed  in  Scripture 


128  THE    jailer's    question    to    ST.   PAUL, 

by  receiving  the  testimony  which  God  hath  given  of  his  Son— 
the  Scriptures  being  the  record  of  that  testimony,  inspired  and 
verified  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  faith  includes  his  divine 
nature  as  the  Son  of  God.  That  he  who  took  our  nature  upon 
him,  in  order  to  accompUsh  the  work  of  our  redemption,  was 
God  as  well  as  man — one  with  the  Father — of  the  same  eter- 
nity, power,  and  glory — God  over  all,  blessed  for  ever.  This 
is  fundamental,  my  brethren,  and  lies  at  the  very  threshold  of 
the  gospel ;  because  on  this  depends  the  whole  virtue  and  effi- 
cacy of  his  death  as  an  atonement  for  sin,  of  his  merits  as  the 
gjound  of  man's  acceptance  with  God,  and  of  his  mediatorial 
office  between  God  and  man.  This  was  the  faith  of  Peter,  not 
revealed  to  him  by  flesh  and  blood — the  faith  on  which,  as  on  a 
rock,  the  church  is  built — this  was  the  faith  professed  by  the 
Ethiopian  eunuch,  when  baptized  by  Philip — this  is  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints — this  is  the  faith  into  which  we  are 
baptized,  my  brethren,  and  which  we  must  keep,  if  we  would  be 
saved.  Nor  is  there  an  instance,  in  Scripture  or  in  the  primi- 
tive Church,  of  any  person  being  admitted  to  the  Christian  name 
and  privileges,  but  on  the  profession  of  this  faith. 

Believing  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  includes,  also,  the  be- 
lief of  the  doctrines  he  taught,  by  himself  and  by  his  apostles,  as 
contained  in  the  Scriptures.  These  are  to  us  what  the  preach- 
ing of  the  inspired  men  was  to  the  first  Christians,  and  contain 
all  things  necessary  to  be  believed  and  practised  in  order  to  our 
being  saved.  As  a  leading  doctrine — a  primary  truth,  without 
which  the  whole  Sciipture  is  an  unintelligible  fable — that  of  the 
fallen,  lost,  ruined,  and  utterly  helpless  condition  of  mankind, 
by  reason  of  sin,  must  be  received  and  firmly  believed  by  all 
who  would  be  saved.  This  is  the  doctrine  which  gives  consis- 
tency to  the  plan  of  our  redemption  by  the  Son  of  God — which 
confirms  the  harmonious  connexion  of  all  the  other  doctrines  of 
his  religion,  and  whichalonemakes  Jesus  Christ  precious  to  the 
believer.  Nothing,  my  dear  hearers,  but  the  full,  the  realized 
conviction  of  this  fundamental  truth,  can  bring  men  to  inquire, 
in  earnest,  what  they  must  do  to  be  saved.  No  other  view  of 
human  nature  can  cast  down  the  pride  which  exalts  itself  against 
God  and  the  word  of  his  grace,  and  bring  men  to  desire  and 


THE    jailer's    question    TO    ST.  PAUL.  129 

to  pray  for  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  the  author  and  source  of  all 
holy  desires,  all  good  counsels,  and  all  just  works  in  the  renewed 
creature.  But  it  is  the  very  doctrine  which  the  natural  man 
most  abhors,  and  exerts  all  his  ingenuity  to  escape  from  ;  and, 
therefore,  it  is,  that  it  is  laid  at  the  commencement  of  religious 
attainment,  and  that  no  man  under  the  light  of  the  gospel  can 
be  saved,  until  truly  convinced,  by  the  word  and  Spirit  of 
God,  that  in  himself  he  is  lost  and  undone — that  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  only  has  he  righteousness  and  strength  ;  and  is  thereby 
brought  to  repentance  towards  God  and  faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  for  pardon  and  acceptance,  for  the  renewal  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  for  eternal  life. 

This  is  the  doctrine,  my  brethren,  and  the  only  doctrine 
which  realizes  the  truth  of  Scripture,  which  makes  religion  a 
reasonable  service,  and  presents  to  every  man  under  the  gospel 
the  means  of  determining  in  regard  to  his  personal  condition, 
whether  he  hath  indeed  come  to  the  light  or  is  yet  walking  in 
darkness.  For  certain  it  is,  that  no  man  ever  sought  and  ob- 
tained the  favour  of  God  and  eternal  life,  who  had  not  first  been 
savingly  convinced  that  he  was,  by  nature  and  practice,  the 
enemy  of  God,  the  slave  of  sin,  and  the  heir  of  eternal  death. 

Secondly,  believing  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  includes 
obedience  to  his  commandments. 

Faith  and  obedience  are  inseparable,  my  brethren,  in  any  just 
estimate  of  spiritual  condition.  He  who  disregards  a  command 
which  he  professes  to  believe  is  enjoined  by  Almighty  God,  must 
be  presumed  to  labour  under  some  strange  delusion  as  to  the 
nature  of  faith,  or  knowingly  to  act  in  defiance  of  his  Maker. 
Otherwise,  his  disobedience  would  convince  him  of  unbelief,  or 
true  belief  would  cure  his  disobedience.  While,  therefore,  any 
person  continues  in  open  disobedience  to  any  of  the  commands 
of  Christ,  knowing  that  they  are  so  commanded — which  is  the 
case  with  all  under  the  gospel  who  are  not  wilfully  ignorant — 
such  a  person  can  have  no  good  ground  to  hope  that  he  so  be- 
lieves in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  he  shall  be  saved. 

Among  the  commands  of  Christ,  left  with  his  disciples,  one 
is,  that  they  should  openly  profess  his  name  and  religion  before 
the  world,  as  his  peculiar  people.     Now  this  all  true  believers 

Vol.  n.— 17 


130  THE    jailer's    question    to    ST.  PAUL. 

do.  But  there  are  thousands  upon  thousands,  in  every  Chris- 
tian land,  who  have  never  done  this  beyond  that  of  their  bap- 
tism in  infancy — all  the  benellt  of  wliich,  repentance  excepted, 
they  have  forfeited,  again  and  again,  by  personal  sin.  Yet  these 
persons  profess  to  believe  in  Christ,  and  entertain  some  expect- 
ation of  being  saved  through  his  merits.  But  must  not  this  be 
a  wilful  delusion,  seeing  their  belief  is  not  sufficient  to  lead  them 
to  obey  this  first  and  easiest  command  of  their  Lord  and  Saviour  1 

Another  command  of  Christ  is,  that  men  should  repent  of 
their  past  sins,  and  cease  from  sin  in  future,  if  they  would  be 
saved  by  him.  And  this  every  true  believer  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  certainly  does.  Yet  there  are  multitudes  of  men  and 
women  living  in  the  practice  of  known  sin,  in  various  ways  and 
degrees,  who  yet  profess  to  believe  in  Christ,  and  to  hope  for 
forgiveness  and  salvation  through  him,  though  this  belief  has 
never  dimmed  their  eye  with  the  tear  of  penitence,  nor  withheld 
their  heart  from  the  sinful  pleasures  of  the  world,  or  from  in- 
dulgence in  its  vain  pursuits.  But  is  not  this  a  still  stronger 
delusion  of  the  devil  1  an  actual  making  of  Christ  the  minister 
of  sin,  and  a  defeating  of  the  very  purpose  of  his  coming,  which 
was  to  save  his  people  from  their  sins  ?  How,  then,  shall  those  be 
saved  from  wrath,  through  him,  who  will  not  repent  and  cease 
from  sin  at  his  command  1 

A  third  command  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is,  that  his 
disciples  should,  on  suitable  occasions,  commemorate  his  death 
by  partaking  together  of  the  holy  sacrament  which  he  instituted 
as  a  perpetual  memorial  of  his  love  in  thus  dying  for  them. 
This  all  true  believers  not  only  do,  but  consider  it  the  highest 
privilege  to  be  permitted  thus  to  testify  their  sense  of  the  un- 
speakable benefits  by  his  precious  blood-shedding  procured  for 
them  ;  yet  the  countless  m.ajority  in  Christian  lands  professing  to 
hope  in  Christ,  are  utterly  regardless  of  this  command  of  their 
dying  benefactor,  and  flee  away  as  rapidly  from  the  symbols  of 
his  broken  body  and  shed  blood  as  if  injury  and  not  blessing  lay 
hid  in  their  mysterious  properties.  How,  then,  shall  such  persons 
be  saved  by  faith  in  Christ,  if  they  continue  to  disregard  the  plain 
commands  of  Christ  1  O  my  dear  friends,  awake,  I  beseech 
you,  from  this  delusion  of  a  barren  and  speculative  faith,  from 


THE    jailer's    question    TO    ST.    PAUL.  131 

the  presumption  of  a  disobedient  hope,  and  from  the  misery  of  a 
delayed,  perhaps  an  unavailing  repentance,  and  learn,  that  if 
you  would  be  saved  you  must  so  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  as  to  obey  his  commandments.  No  other  proof  can 
you  give  or  will  he  receive  that  you  do  believe  in  him. 

I  have  given  instances  in  three  of  his  commands  only,  and 
these  the  plainest  and  most  openly  distinctive  of  believers.  But 
they  are  the  three  most  openly  disregarded,  and  upon  pretences 
which  aggravate  rather  than  extenuate  the  offence.  Remember, 
I  beseech  you,  that  himself  warns  us,  that  in  the  great  day  of 
eternity  many  will  claim  an  interest  in  Christ  which  he  will  not 
acknowledge,  and  that  it  is  not  crying  Lord,  Lord,  but  the 
doing  the  will  of  God  as  revealed  in  his  word,  that  will  entitle 
to  an  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Blessed  are  they 
that  do  his  commandments,  that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of 
life,  and  may  enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  city. 

Thirdly,  believing  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  includes 
perseverance  in  faith  and  holiness. 

Religion  being  the  improvement  of  our  moral  nature,  must  be 
progressive  in  its  attainments.  The  heart  may  be  changed  in  a 
moment,  but  the  life  must  be  amended  by  degrees.  The  princi- 
ple on  which  the  whole  depends,  may  be  the  fruit  of  a  short  ex- 
ercise of  the  faculties  of  the  soul,  but  the  trial  and  development 
of  that  principle  is  the  business  of  the  subsequent  life  ;  and  to 
this,  perseverance,  that  is  continuance  in  a  course  begun,  is  just 
as  essential  as  truth  and  obedience.  For  as  all  the  faculties  are 
strengthened  by  use  and  exercise,  in  like  manner  our  spiritual 
graces  are  enlarged  and  confirmed  by  patient  continuance  in 
well  doing,  until  habitual  reverence  of  God,  constant  regard  to 
his  favour,  and  steadfast  preference  of  his  will,  become  the 
established  temper  of  the  soul.  The  trial  of  the  present  life,  my 
Christian  brethren,  is,  to  determine  our  fitness  for  eternal  glory ; 
and,  as  this  can  be  wrought  out  only  by  a  total  change  of  the 
desires  and  affections  of  the  soul,  and  can  be  manifested  only  by 
fruits  of  righteousness  towards  men  and  of  piety  towards  God, 
in  the  conduct  of  the  life — perseverance  in  obedience  to  the  law 
of  Christ,  is  the  ci'own  of  religion.  To  this  duty,  and  it  is 
spoken  of  in  Scripture  only  as  a  duty,  we  are  exhorted  and 


132  THE    jailer's    question    to   ST.    PAUL. 

encouraged  by  every  consideration  that  can  add  force  to  the 
highest  and  most  glorious  interest  that  a  fallen  creature  can 
contemplate.  Behold  I  come  quickly  ;  hold  that  fast  which  thou 
hast,  that  no  man  take  thy  crown.  But  take  heed  to  yourselves, 
lest  at  any  time  your  hearts  be  overcharged  with  surfeiting  and 
drunkenness,  and  cares  of  this  life,  and  so  that  day  come  upon  you 
unawares.  For  we  are  made  partakers  of  Christ  if  we  holdfast 
the  beginning  of  our  confidence  steadfast  unto  the  end.  That  we 
may  fall  away,  therefore,  is  very  possible,  and  nothing  but 
watchfulness  and  diligence  can  keep  our  loins  girt  and  our  lights 
burning.  But  the  promises  of  God  are  more  than  equal  to  this 
danger.  To  those  promises,  then,  let  us  look,  my  brethren,  as 
the  anchor  of  the  soul.  In  the  hour  of  temptation  let  us  hear 
our  heavenly  leaderh  voice,  encouraging  us  to  fight  the  good 
fight  of  faith,  with  the  cheering  declaration — my  grace  is  sufficient 
for  thee.  He  that  endureth  to  the  end  the  same  shall  be  saved. 
That  which  ye  have  already,  hold  fast  till  I  come ;  and  he  that 
overcometh  and  keepeth  my  loorks  unto  the  end,  to  him  will  I  give 
power  over  the  nations,  and  he  shall  rule  them  tcith  a  rod  of  iron. 

God  grant,  my  brethren,  that  the  blessed  expectation  may  fire 
our  hearts  with  renewed  zeal  to  win  the  crown  of  eternal  life — 
and  that  the  power  of  his  Holy  Spirit  may  stir  up  the  hearts 
of  all  present  so  to  consider  what  has  been  said,  as  forthwith  to 
come  to  Christ,  and  learn  of  him  what  they  must  do  to  be 
saved. 


SERMON  XII. 


CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE. 


John  iii.  16. 


"  For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life." 

In  this  epitome  or  abridged  declaration  of  the  gospel,  my 
brethren,  we  have  our  thoughts  and  meditations  directed  to  the 
only  foundation  of  Christian  faith  and  hope,  in  that  love  of  God 
which  prompted  him  to  provide  and  bring  to  pass  the  redemp- 
tion and  salvation  of  a  sin-ruined  world.  Whether  in  any,  and  in 
how  many  other  ways  this  might  have  been  effected  by  infinite 
wisdom,  omnipotent  power,  and  boundless  love,  must  ever  be  a 
vain  and  useless  speculation.  Sufficient,  it  would  appear,  yea, 
and  more  than  sufficient,  in  respect  to  any  claim  we  could 
possibly  have,  is  it,  that  we  have  been  in  any  way  cared  for ; 
and  the  gratitude  due  for  such  undeserved  favour,  should  chase 
away  every  overweening  conceit  of  the  wisdom  of  the  world, 
every  high  thought  which  exalts  itself  against  God  and  the  word 
of  his  grace. 

Yet,  if  we  are  called  on  to  convince  gainsayers,  or  rather,  to 
give  a  right  direction  to  the  views  and  inquiries  of  those  who  do 
err,  because  they  know  not  the  Scriptures  and  the  power  of 
God — (for  ignorance  is  the  parent  of  infidelity) — we  are  not 
unprovided  with  facts  and  arguments  to  demonstrate  the  perfect 
agreement  of  the  means  with  the  end,  to  show  the  connexion  of 
the  purpose  and  the  plan  of  our  salvation,  by  the  incarnation  of 
the  Son  of  God,  and  the  harmonious  union  of  the  high  attributes 
of  heaven's  justice  and  dignity  with  the  manifestation  of  mercy 
to  man,  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross.  These,  though  high,  holy, 
and  mysterious  things,  are  yet  the  very  life-blood  of  the  religion 
we  profess,   and  the  constant  theme  of  Christian  gratitude, 


134 


CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE. 


admiration,  and  j)raise.  Brought  down,  also,  as  they  are,  to  the 
comprehension  of  our  limited  and  clouded  faculties,  and  bearing 
upon  our  present  and  eternal  welfare,  there  can  be  no  excuse 
for  the  neglect  of  them,  or  of  that  improvement  of  love  and 
mercy  thus  manifested,  which  only  can  deliver  us,  who  are 
favoured  with  the  gospel,  from  the  double  condemnation  of  sin 
and  rebellion  persisted  in  against  light  and  knowledge,  and 
salvation  by  the  blood  of  Christ  rejected  and  trampled  under 
foot.  Oh !  what  a  fearful  thought  it  is,  to  reflect  on  the 
thousands  around  whom  the  light  of  divine  truth  and  saving 
mercy  shines  with  the  bright  eff'ulgence  of  gospel  day,  who  are 
yet  as  unconcerned  for  the  consequences  as  if  this  life  were  all 
they  had  to  provide  for;  as  careless  of  the  judgment  which  must 
pass  upon  them  for  these  mighty  benefits,  as  if  there  were  neither 
a  heaven  or  a  hell  to  receive  them ;  and  as  negligent  of  the 
appointed  means  to  reap  the  fruit  of  redeeming  love,  as  if  God 
had  no  claims  upon  them  as  his  creatures,  and  faith  and  holiness 
no  reward,  and  sin  and  unbelief  no  punishment  provided  under 
his  righteous  government. 

My  hearers,  you  cannot  escape  from  the  claim  which  the 
gospel  has  upon  you.  Do  what  you  will,  or  think  as  you  will, 
the  word  spoken  unto  you  must  judge  you  at  the  last  day. 
Let  me,  then,  prevail  with  you  for  attention  to  the  doctrine 
contained  in  my  text,  and  for  its  application  to  your  present 
condition,  that  light  may  enter  your  minds,  and  truth  prevail 
against  the  cruel  delusion  of  meeting  death  and  eternity  unpre- 
pared for  either — that  truth  which  sets  forth  the  great  and 
glorious  God  who  has  no  need  of  the  sinful  man,  yet  interpos- 
ing the  might  of  his  transcendant  attributes  to  redeem  his  soul, 
and  at  the  unspeakable  price  of  his  only  begotten  Son,  surren- 
dered to  humiliation,  sufferings,  and  death,  to  buy  him  back 
from  sin  and  death  to  holiness  and  life  eternal — that  truth  which 
proclaims  in  my  text,  the  antecedent,  unbought  love  of  God  the 
Father  Almighty,  to  a  rebellious  world,  which  is  proclaimed  in 
the  gospel  and  commanded  to  be  preached  to  all  nations  for  the 
obedience  of  faith — that  truth  which  calls  particulaily  for  our 
attention  at  this  time,  when  the  stated  services  of  the  Church  fix 
our  meditations  on  the  advent  of  our  Lord,  to  fulfil  the  high 


CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE.  135 

and  holy  purposes  of  that  eternal  counsel  which  he  purposed  in 
Christ  Jesus  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  which  is, 
indeed,  the  only  predestination  known  to  the  Scriptures  that 
we  can  apply  to  any  profitable  or  comfortable  purpose. 

In  discoursing  on  this  passage  of  Scripture,  therefore,  I  shall, 
in  the 

First  place,  point  out  the  connexion  of  the  text  with  the 
context. 

Secondly,  I  shall  endeavour  to  explain  what  is  so  clearly 
implied  in  the  text — that  but  for  the  coming  of  Christ  man  must 
have  perished. 

Thirdly,  I  shall  point  out  the  nature  of  the  salvation  thus 
wrought  out  for  us  ;  and,  then. 

Conclude  with  an  application  of  the  whole. 
For  God  so  loved  the  uwrld  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Soriy 
that  u'hosotver  believeth  in  him  shoidd  not  jierish,  but  have  everlast- 
ing life. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  point  out  the  connexion  of  the  text  with  the 
context. 

That  this  particular  passage  is  a  part  of  our  Lord's  conver- 
sation with  Nicodemus,  is  known  to  all  who  are  acquainted  with 
their  Bibles,  as  it  also  is  known  that  he  therein  briefly  set  forth 
the  whole  gospel,  with  the  reason  of  that  particular  method  in 
which  only  the  salvation  of  sinners  could  be  accomplished, 
consistently  with  the  divine  perfections. 

God's  purpose  being,  not  merely  to  vindicate  his  justice  by 
the  infliction  of  the  threatened  penalty  for  disobedience,  but  the 
farther  and  more  gracious  purpose  of  reclaiming  the  offender, 
and  restoring  him  to  the  favour  he  had  forfeited — therefore, 
the  execution  of  the  sentence  could  not  be  on  the  sinner  him- 
self, because  this  would  have  involved  his  immediate  death  and 
consequent  condemnation.  Hence  the  necessity  of  a  substitute 
of  the  same  nature,  and  hence  the  necessity  of  the  incarnation 
of  the  Son  of  God,  when  appointed  and  accepted  by  the  Father, 
to  fulfil  this  mighty  and  gracious  purpose.  The  conversation  with 
Nicodemus,  therefore,  is  so  directed  as  to  embrace  both  these 
particulars — the  satisfaction  to  he  made  for  sin,  and  the  means 
thereupon  and  thereby  provided  for  the  renewal  of  the  sinner. 


136  CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE. 

Keeping  this  in  view,  what  is  needful  for  our  present  purpose 
is  plain. — Our  Saviour  informs  Nicodemus  of  God's  proposed 
mercy,  and  of  the  means  by  which  it  was  procured  ;  and  declares 
the  necessity  which  man,  as  a  fallen  sinner,  was  under,  of  a  new 
and  spiritual  birth,  to  render  him  capable  of  the  advantages  pro- 
posed to  him,  and  of  the  appointed  and  only  sacrifice  for  sin,  of 
which  all  others  were  typical.  He  informs  him,  that  they  had 
a  figure  and  a  representation  in  the  Old  Testament  Church, 
which,  in  connexion  with  the  prophecies  respecting  the  Mes- 
siah, might  have  instructed  them  that  the  fulness  of  time,  or  the 
predicted  time,  was  come,  when  all  should  be  fulfilled.  For  as 
Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the 
Son  of  Man  he  lifted  up.  That  as,  in  the  one  case,  those  who 
were  bitten  of  actual  venomous  serpents,  were  cured  by  behold- 
ing the  brazen  serpent — so,  in  the  other  case,  the  soul  bitten 
and  poisoned  by  the  venom  of  sin,  mig'lit  be  healed  by  beholding 
the  Lamb  of  God  lifted  up  on  the  cross,  to  take  away  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world. 

Of  the  necessity  of  that  renewal  which  a  spiritually  dead 
creature  must  obtain,  to  render  him  capable  of  spiritual  things, 
expressed  under  the  figure  of  a  new  birth,  or  birth  from  above, 
he  chides  Nicodemus  for  being  ignorant. — Art  thou  a  master  in 
Israel,  and  knowest  not  these  things  ?  Seeing  that  both  the  insti- 
tution of  sacrifice,  which  is  an  acknowledgment  of  guilt  and  for- 
feited life  on  the  part  of  the  offerer,  and  the  very  reason  of  the 
thing,  require  such  a  change  to  pass  upon  us.  That  which  is 
born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh. — By  your  natural  birth  you  have  no  title 
to  a  heavenly  inheritance,  nor  any  qualification  for  it.  The  one 
can  only  be  obtained  by  faith  in  me — the  other,  by  repentance 
towards  God,  wrought  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
bringing  forth  fruit  unto  holiness  of  life.  And  this  birth  from 
above,  this  renewal  of  the  Spirit,  is  only  to  be  obtained  by 
believing  in  my  Person — embracing  my  doctrine — entering  my 
Church  by  baptism,  and  continuing  therein  as  my  disciple.  Ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God — either  that  kingdom  which  I  am  come  to 
set  up  and  establish  in  the  world,  or  that  higher,  but,  at  present, 
invisible  kingdom,  to  which  the  profession  of  my  religion  is  a 


CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE.  137 

preparatory  and  indispensable  step.  For  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in 
him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.  Therefore,  I  atn 
come  into  the  world  to  gather  into  one  the  children  of  God  scat- 
tered abroad,  to  fulfil  the  law  and  the  prophets — to  declare  the 
way  of  God  more  perfectly,  and  by  tasting  death  for  every  man 
to  open  a  new  and  living  way,  through  faith  and  holiness,  to 
eternal  life.  Thus  is  light  come  into  the  woild ;  that  light  which 
is  the  life  of  men ;  and  this  light  is  witnessed  both  by  the  law-^nd 
the  prophets,  and  confirmed  by  my  doctrine  and  miracles.  For 
God  sejit  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to  condemn  the  worlds  hut  that 
the  world  through  him  m,ight  he  saved.  He  that  believeth  on  him, 
is  not  condemned,  hut  he  that  helieveth  not  is  condemned  already. 
And  this  is  the  condemnation,  that  light  is  come  into  the  world 
but  men  loved  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their  deeds  are 
evil. 

Thus  do  we  perceive,  my  hearers,  the  connexion  of  the  par- 
ticular passage  before  us,  not  only  with  this  conversation,  but 
with  the  whole  gospel.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  germ  of  the  gospel, 
and  contains  in  itself,  as  in  a  seed,  both  the  root  and  the 
branches  of  that  glorious  dispensation  of  grace  under  whose 
saving  influence  it  is  our  unspeakable  privilege  to  be  placed. 
God  hath  given  his  only  begotten  Son,  and  that  well  beloved 
Son  hath  come,  and  shed  the  light  of  life  over  a  benighted  and 
sin-enslaved  world.  And  yet  what  numbers  refuse  to  come  to 
this  light ;  and  for  the  old  reason,  because  their  deeds  are  evil. 
What  multitudes  cling  to  the  world  as  their  hope,  though  they 
know  it  is  with  themselves  hasting  to  vanish  away  !  And  what 
still  greater  numbers  care  for  none  of  these  things,  but  flutter 
down  the  stream  of  time,  amused  with  the  bubbles  which  burst 
on  its  surface — occupied  with  the  vanities  which  perish  as  they 
are  gained — or  engaged  in  plans  and  expectations  which  pro- 
mote the  advantage  of  one  with  the  injury,  perhaps  the  misery, 
of  numbers.  Yet  these  all  have  souls,  immortal  souls,  too,  and 
for  which  Christ  hath  paid  his  blood.  These  must  all  be 
judged  by  the  word  spoken  unto  them,  and  suffer  the  eternal 
forfeit  of  God's  love  derided,  his  mercy  despised,  his  revealed 
wrath  dared,  unless  they  come  to  repentance,  and  flee  to  that 

Vol.  II.— 18 


1S8  CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE, 

cross  which  is  at  one  and  the  same  time  the  release  and  the  con- 
demnation of  sin  and  sinners.  To  this  they  are  invited  by  the 
love  of  God,  and  commanded  by  his  authority — to  this  they  are 
drawn  by  every  motive  which  is  known  to  have  force  with  rea- 
sonable creatures,  and,  beyond  all,  by  the  tremendous  truth 
contained  in  my  text  and  enforced  throughout  the  gospel,  that 
without  an  interest  in  Christ  they  must  perish  for  ever  ;  which 
brings  me  to  the 

II.  Second  point  proposed,  which  was,  to  explain  what  is  so 
clearly  implied  in  the  text,  that  but  for  the  coming  of  Christ 
man  must  have  perished. 

It  is  but  to  consider  the  nature  of  sin  and  its  effect  on  the 
sinner,  my  brethren,  to  comprehend  the  value  and  efficacy  of 
this  unspeakable  gift  to  a  world  of  sinners.  Sin  is  any  want 
of  conformity  to  the  pure  and  holy  nature  of  God.  Of  course 
there  can  be  no  fellowship  or  agreement  between  the  sinner  and 
God.  Nor  on  the  part  of  the  sinner  is  it  wished — the  holiness 
of  God  being  that  attribute  in  Deity  which  the  habitual  sinner 
is  most  at  war  with.  But  more  particularly,  sin  is  the  wilful 
transgression  of  any  express  command  of  God.  Now  this  can- 
not take  place,  without  setting  at  nought  both  the  authority  and 
the  goodness  of  God.  So  that  sin,  in  its  nature,  comprehends 
rebellion,  contempt,  and  ingratitude.  These  enter  into  the  very 
elements  of  sin  ;  and  where  they  exist,  as  they  do  in  every  sin- 
ner, though  he  may  not  be  conscious  of  them  without  reflection, 
it  is  plainly  impossible  that  any  union  should  continue  between 
the  parties. 

The  effect  or  consequence  of  sin  is  two-fold,  as  respects  God 
and  as  it  respects  ourselves. 

As  respects  God.  Seeing  he  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold 
iniquity,  and  cannot  look  upon  sin  with  the  least  degree  of 
allowance,  it  must  at  once  cut  off  the  sinner  from  whatever 
state  of  favour  he  was  previously  in.  And  as  it  is  moreover 
direct  rebellion  against  his  sovereign  authority,  as  supreme  law- 
giver, it  calls  loudly  for  the  vindication  of  that  authority,  by  the 
infliction  of  the  punishment  due  to  and  denounced  against  it. 

Hence,  as  respects  God,  the  inevitable  consequence  of  sin  is^ 
renunciation,  wrath,  and  punishment. 


CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE.  139 

As  respects  ourselves,  the  effect  or  consequence  of  sin  is, 
separation  or  excision  from  God  ;  and  this  virtually,  by  raising 
the  standard  of  rebellion  in  our  hearts,  against  his  authority  and 
government — and  actually,  by  siding  with  his  enemy.  And 
were  there  nothing  more,  no  farther  consequences  to  be  appre- 
hended, this  in  itself  would  be  destruction ;  for  to  be  cut  off 
from  the  only  source  of  all  comfort,  hope,  and  blessing,  with- 
out a  possibility  of  return,  is,  in  fact,  to  an  immortal  creature, 
to  perish  forever. 

But  this  separation  or  excision  from  God  because  of  sin, 
involves  further  the  loss  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  which  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  life — spiritual  life  in  the  soul;  the  depravation  of  all 
the  faculties  of  the  mind,  and  the  decay  and  death  of  the  body. 
Hence,  natural  evil  is  the  consequence  of  sin,  and  had  no  place 
in  the  creation  of  God  until  sin,  entertained  in  the  will  and  per- 
fected in  the  act  by  the  first  man,  opened  a  door  for  all  its 
plagues  to  enter  in  and  overwhelm  us. 

Now  if  the  nature  and  effect  of  sin  be  as  I  have  very  briefly 
stated  it,  my  hearers,  and  my  warrant  is  the  word  of  God,  what 
must  become  either  of  an  individual  or  of  a  world  in  such  a  situa- 
tion 1  Is  it  competent  to  the  rebel  lying  at  mercy  to  settle  the 
conditions  on  which  he  is  to  be  forgiven  ?  Is  it  competent  to 
the  offender  to  say  what  satisfaction  shall  be  sufficient  to  com- 
pensate for  his  ofience  1  Or  is  this  the  prerogative  of  the  party 
rebelled  against  and  offended  ?  Let  common  sense  and  com- 
mon usage  teach  us  wisdom  in  this  infinite  interest.  But  sup- 
pose the  punishment  and  penalty  could  be,  by  us,  either  borne 
or  escaped  from,  or  satisfied  in  any  way,  what  becomes  of  the 
distance  it  hath  put  between  God  and  our  souls  1  How  is  that 
barrier  to  be  removed  ?  Can  a  human  hand  wrest  the  flaming 
sword  that  guards  the  tree  of  life  from  the  hand  of  the  cheru- 
bim, and  regain  the  Paradise  from  which  sin  hath  driven  him  out  1 
But  let  us  admit  even  this  monstrous  proposition.  Would  Para- 
dise or  Heaven  be  such  to  the  sinner  1  And  is  the  creature,  the 
work  of  another  hand,  able  to  re-create  himself?  Can  he  who 
hath  lost  the  image  of  God  restore  it  to  himself  ?  Will  the  Holy 
Spirit  return  at  his  bidding,  and  renew  him  in  the  spirit  of  his 
mind,  and  restore  what  sin  hath  decayed  1  Alas  !  here  is  an  im- 


140 


CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVK. 


pregnable  barrier  which  we  cannot  force,  and  without  which 
God  is  but  lost  to  us  for  ever.  Every  way,  therefore,  we  are 
undone  in  ourselves.  Hope  is  cut  off,  and  heaven  barred 
against  us.  And  thus  we  see  how  man  could  not  but  have 
perished  for  ever,  had  Jr.sus  Christ  never  been  given.  He 
only  could  make  the  required  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world.  He  only  was  worthy  to  be  heard  in  our  behalf. 
None  other  than  a  divine  person  could  make  that  atonement 
which  balanced  and  overweighed  the  infinite  demerit  of  sin. 
And  none  other  than  the  only  wise  God  could  so  have  met  our 
want  with  the  riches  of  his  grace,  as  is  displayed  in  the  gospel ; 
where  mercy  and  truth  are  met  together,  righteousness  and  peace 
have  kissed  each  other — where  sin  is  pardoned  and  justice 
satisfied — the  sinner  reclaimed  and  holiness  established — death 
conquered  and  immortality  brought  to  light — God  glorified  and 
the  sinner  saved — hell  overcome  and  heaven  replenished  by 
the  cross  of  Christ.  Well  did  St.  Paul  say,  God  forbid 
that  I  should  glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  my  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  And  O  that  the  millions  to  whom  this  saving  doctrine 
is  plainly  set  forth  by  the  preaching  of  the  word  would  but 
consider  the  bearing  it  has  upon  their  eternal  interests ;  that 
they  would  so  meditate  upon  the  gracious  and  merciful  purpose 
which  clothed  him  in  our  nature  and  stretched  him  upon  the 
cross,  as  to  prepare  for  his  second  advent  in  glory,  to  judge  the 
world,  to  triumph  over  his  enemies,  and  reward  his  servants. 
O  come  that  blessed  day  when  trial  will  be  over,  suffering  at 
an  end,  and  Christ  be  glorified  in  all  his  saints — when  the 
Church  triumphant  shall  celebrate  the  praises  of  her  God  and 
Saviour,  in  hosannas  lasting  as  eternity  ! 

But  to  attain  this  joyful  and  glorious  hope,  my  brethren,  the 
gracious  purpose  wherewith  God  was  pleased  to  give  his  only 
begotten  Son,  must  be  answered  ;  which  brings  me  to  the 

in.  Third  head  I  proposed  to  speak  of,  which  was  to  point  out 
the  nature  of  the  salvation  thus  wrought  out  for  us.  To  under- 
stand this  aright  and  to  apply  it  profitably  we  must  consider  the 
nature  and  extent  of  our  undoing. 

As  this  undoing  extended  both  to  body  and  soul,  the  salva- 
tion wrought  out  for  us  by  Christ  reaches  to  the  same  extent. 


CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE.  141 

The  salvation  of  the  body  is  accomplished  in  its  resurrection 
from  the  dead,  whereof  we  have  the  assurance  in  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ's  body,  which  was  of  the  same  mortal  and 
corruptible  nature  as  that  in  which  we  arc  found.  Jis  in  Mam 
all  die,  so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive.  Md  to  this  end 
Christ  both  died  and  rose  again,  and  revived  that  he  might  be 
Lord  both  of  the  dead  and  living.  As  the  entertainment  of 
sin  established  the  empire  of  death  over  man  fallen,  so  the  con- 
quest of  sin,  and  of  him  who  had  the  power  of  death,  by  our 
representative,  restores  that  immortality  to  the  body  for  which 
it  was  originally  created.  This  peculiar  and  distinguishing 
doctrine  of  Christianity  was  one  of  the  fruits  of  Christ's  under- 
taking for  us  ;  and  while  it  is  full  of  hope  and  comfort,  to  those 
who  embrace  and  obey  the  gospel,  increases  the  horror  and 
despair  of  those  who  reject  it.  Because  it  is  for  the  purpose  of 
judgment  that  the  dead  shall  be  raised,  that  soul  and  body,  once 
more  united,  and  for  evermore  incapable  of  decay  or  dissolution, 
may  suffer  or  enjoy,  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  to 
all  eternity.  Oh  !  what  a  price  will  those  who  now  sacrifice  to 
the  flesh  then  pay,  for  the  short  lived,  unsatisfying  enjoyments 
of  sense  ;  and  what  a  rich  reward  will  those  who  now  crucify 
the  flesh  with  the  affections  and  lusts  of  a  fallen  nature,  then 
reap.  O  that  we  could  realize  this  awful  truth  as  we  ought, 
and  see  the  intemperance  and  thoughtlessness  of  both  old 
and  young  falling  before  it.  But  alas  !  while  this  is  unheeded 
iniquity  will  abound. 

The  salvation  of  the  soul  is  accomplished  by  restoring  it  to 
the  image  from  which  it  is  fallen.  As  sin  committed  proved 
the  death  of  the  soul,  the  destruction  of  hs  faculties  of  knowing, 
loving,  and  pleasing  God,  so  by  the  destruction  of  sin  is  the 
soul  restored  to  its  original  health,  and  rendered  capable  of  all 
that  the  gospel  requires.  Now^  it  is  only  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
(that  same  Spirit  which  formed  the  life  of  their  souls  in  our 
first  parents,  but  departed  from  them  when  they  sinned)  that 
this  can  be  wrought  in  us  their  progeny.  And  this  Spirit  is 
the  purchase  of  Christ's  death,  who,  ichen  he  ascended  up  on 
high,  led  captivity  captive  and  received  gifts  for  men.  This  is  the 
turning  point  of  the  religion  of  the  gospel,  which  is,  therefore. 


142  CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE. 

called,  emphatically,  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  by  this 
Spirit  that  we  are  convinced  of  sin  and  moved  to  repentance. 
It  is  by  this  Spirit  that  we  are  renewed  to  holiness  and  con- 
firmed in  faith.  It  is  by  this  Spirit  that  our  union  with  Christ 
is  witnessed,  and  the  atonement  of  his  death  personally  applied 
to  the  pardon  of  our  sins  and  acceptance  with  God.  And  it  is 
by  this  Spirit  dwelling  in  us  that  our  mortal  bodies  will  be 
raised  at  the  last  day.  This  precious  gift  is  the  promise  of  the 
Father  and  the  purchase  of  the  Son.  As  without  His  quickening, 
renewing  power,  all  the  other  parts  of  our  redemption  and  sal- 
vation would  have  been  in  vain,  so  unless  we  obtain  and  follow 
the  Spirit  we  can  never  be  prepared  for  heaven.  And  what  is 
thus  so  necessary  for  all  is  freely  offered  to  all  under  the  gospel ; 
it  is  offered  to  our  prayers,  to  our  earnest  endeavours  to  con- 
form to  the  will  of  God  ;  yea,  he  is  present  in  every  one  of  you, 
my  hearers,  at  this  present  moment,  though  ye  know  him  not — 
ready  to  perform  his  gracious  operations  upon  your  hearts  and 
bring  you  back  to  God,  turning  you  from  sin.  He  stands  ready 
to  enlighten  your  ignorance,  to  strengthen  your  weakness,  to 
reprove  your  folly,  and  admonish  your  carelessness.  And  how 
often  have  you  grieved  him,  and  turned  away  from  the  gracious 
convictions  he  hath  wrought  in  your  hearts.  O  turn  not  away 
from  his  wholesome  though  sometimes  painful  discipline,  but 
yield  yourselves  to  the  truth  which  saveth  ;  that,  renewed  in  the 
spirit  of  your  minds,  the  salvation  wrought  out  for  you  by  the 
Son  of  God  may  be  accomplished  by  victory  over  sin  in  this 
life,  by  the  attainment  of  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  and  by 
the  final  triumph  of  soul  and  body  together,  over  death  and  hell, 
in  the  great  day  of  eternity.  Thus  shall  the  gracious  purpose 
wherefore  God  gave  his  Son,  and  that  Son  consented  to  be 
given  for  us,  be  answered.  Thus  shall  he  see  of  the  travail  of 
his  soul,  and  his  second  coming  welcome  you  to  the  joy  and 
glory  of  his  heavenly  kingdom. 

The  religion  of  the  gospel,  my  friends,  is  a  provision  of  God's 
mercy  to  save  your  souls  from  eternal  death,  not  absolutely,  but  on 
condition  that  you  apply  the  means  furnished  you,  to  conquer 
sin  and  attain  to  that  holiness  without  which  no  man  shall  see 
the  Lord.     The  sentence  of  eternal  death  stands  firm  against 


CHRIST    GIVEN    TO    SAVE.  143 

every  son  of  Adam  who  rejects  the  gospel  and  the  love  and 
compassion  of  God  in  giving  his  Son  ;  and  the  sufferings  of  that 
Son  for  you  vrill  increase  that  condemnation  heyond  all  power 
of  expression.  From  this  there  is  no  escape.  It  is  the  appoint- 
ment from  heaven  and  cannot  be  reversed.  Take,  then,  the 
warning  of  this  day,  and  let  the  application  of  what  has  been  said 
lead  you  to  a  serious  consideration  of  what  God  hath  done  for  you 
— of  the  answer  you  will  be  able  to  make  when  your  account  is 
called  for,  and  from  this  judge  of  your  state.  In  vain  will  Christ 
have  been  given  by  the  love  of  God,  if  the  purpose  for  which  he 
came  and  suffered  is  not  answered.  In  vain  will  faith  in  him 
be,  if  that  faith  is  not  fruitful  in  hoHness.  In  vain  shall  we  call 
him  Lord,  if  we  do  not  the  things  which  he  says.  Alas  !  alas  ! 
that  so  many  who  know  all  these  things  should,  nevertheless, 
remain  unmoved  by  them,  and  never  take  a  single  step  godward  ; 
who  hear  to  condemnation,  and  make  a  preached  gospel  the 
savour  of  death  to  their  souls ;  whom  neither  love  can  draw 
nor  fear  drive  from  the  follies  of  the  world  and  the  witcheries  of 
sin.  Merciful  Lord  !  point  the  truth  of  thy  word  to  their  hearts  ; 
and  let  this,  thy  holy  day,  witness  thy  power  to  save,  by  bringing 

some  poor  sinner /rom  darkness  to  lights  and  from  the  power  of 

Satan  to  God. 


SERMON  XIII. 


CHRIST  THE    SIN    OFFERING. 


2  Corinthians   v.  21. 


"  For  he  hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  wlio  knew  no  sin,  that  we  might  be  made 
the  righteousness  of  God  in  him." 

This  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Christian  faith,  on  which 
the  gospel  with  all  its  gracious  invitations,  encouraging  promises, 
and  enlivening  hopes,  is  founded — from  which  all  the  appoint- 
ments, ordinances,  and  means  of  religion  derive  their  whole 
efficacy,  and  to  which,  as  the  procuring  cause  of  pardon,  grace, 
and  everlasting  life  to  sinful  mortals,  it  continually  refers  the 
devout  worshipper  of  God  and  his  Christ,  forms  at  all  times  a 
proper  and  profitable  subject  for  the  meditations  of  Christians. 

It  must,  consequently,  be  to  all  a  most  solemn  and  impressive 
subject,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  seeing  it  involves  in  its  con- 
sideration the  heinous  and  destructive  nature  of  sin,  the  utter 
insufficiency  of  all  and  every  human  means  to  expiate  the  guilt 
of  its  commission,  the  wonderful  provision  of  God's  love, 
mercy,  and  wisdom,  to  constitute  sinners  righteous  in  his  sight 
by  the  merits  of  Christ,  and  the  personal  interest  each  individual 
present  has  in  this  only  propitiation,  atonement,  and  satisfaction 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world,  whether  original  or  actual.  I 
shall,  therefore,  consider  the  text  as  comprising  the  following 
points  of  doctrine  : 

First,  that  all  men  stand  in  need  of  a  Saviour. 

Secondly,  that  the  righteousness  or  morality  of  our  lives 
can  avail  us  nothing  for  acceptance  with  God,  otherwise  than 
under  the  shield  of  Christ's  perfect  righteousness. 

Thirdly,  that  we  can  secure  an  interest  in  the  satisfaction 
made  to  the  divine  justice  by  the  death  of  Christ,  no  otherwise 
than  by  so  receiving  the  testimony  God  hath  given  of  his  Son 
as  to  believe  and  obey  the  gospel. 


CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING.  145 

Fourthly,  that  to  those  only  who  thus  receive  and  apply  it 
is  this  wonderful  appointment  of  God,  set  forth  in  the  text,  made 
effectual  to  salvation. 

For  he  hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us  wlio  knew  no  sin,  that  we 
might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him. 

I.  First,  then,  we  learn  from  the  text  that  all  men  stand  in 
need  of  a  saviour. 

Our  condition  with  respect  to  God,  how  we  stand  in  regard 
to  his  present  and  future  favour,  is  infinitely  the  most  important 
of  all  our  concerns,  my  brethren.  It  may  be  well  or  it  may  be 
ill  with  us  in  the  present  Me  ;  we  may  enjoy  or  we  may  suffer  ; 
but  in  either  case  we  can  look  to  the  end  of  it.  In  another  life, 
however,  this  advantage  is  done  away,  and  whatever  our  condi- 
tion shall  be,  it  is  a  never  ending  and  unchangeable  one.  And 
this  it  is  which  stamps  with  such  superlative  folly  the  guilt  of 
those  who  neglect  to  consider,  with  the  attention  and  seriousness 
it  deserves,  the  ground  of  their  expectations,  whatever  these 
may  be,  when  death  shall  close  the  scene  of  temporal  things 
and  introduce  them  to  those  which  are  eternal. 

One  very  strong  proof  of  the  divine  original  of  the  Scriptures 
of  our  faith,  is  their  agreement  with  the  universal  impressions  of 
mankind  ;  whether  aided  by  revelation  or  left  in  the  darkness  of 
their  natural  state  ;  and  the  complete  relief  which  these  Scrip- 
tures give  on  the  difficulties  of  our  present,  and  on  the  anxieties 
respecting  our  future  condition,  is  one  of  the  most  convincing 
arguments  for  our  thankful  reception  of  them.  Were  we 
innocent  creatures  we  could  not  possibly  reconcile  the  sorrows 
and  sufferings,  the  pains,  diseases,  and  deaths,  under  which  the 
world  labours,  with  the  loving  kindness  and  tender  mercies  of 
our  heavenly  Father,  and  were  we  only  obnoxious  to  temporal 
evils,  though  we  should  fear  and  dread  them,  yet  our  fear  could 
not  be  of  that  indescribable  quality  which  accompanies  the 
expectation  of  those  which  are  future,  and  to  which  death  is 
but  the  prelude.  This  demonstrates,  I  think,  that  there  is 
something  radically  Avrong  in  the  constitution  of  human  nature. 
Death  could  not  be  so  much  the  object  of  fear  and  abhorrence 
to  all  men,  seeing  it  is  so  certain  a  remedy  for  the  miseries  of 
time,  were  it  not  that  there  is  something  thereafter  still  more  to 
Vol.  II.— 19 


146  CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING. 

be  dreaded,  to  which  we  are  justly  liable.  And  let  no  one  here 
say,  that  it  is  to  revelation  we  owe  this  fear  and  anxiety,  because 
tkose  who  never  heard  of  heaven  or  hell,  or  of  the  fall  and 
redemption  of  man,  are  as  full}^  if  not  more,  in  bondage  to  the 
fear  which  hath  torment  than  those  who  are  favoured  with  the 
explicit  knowledge  of  the  rewards  and  punishments  of  another 
life.  Here,  then,  is  one  ground  on  which  it  may  truly  be 
affirmed  that  all  stand  in  need  of  an  interposition  of  heaven's 
mercy,  to  give  relief  to  our  labouring  minds  and  save  us  from 
the  hopeless  conjectures  of  our  sin-darkened  minds,  and  from 
the  cruel  dominion  of  our  relentless  enemy ;  and  this,  we  are 
accordingly  informed,  is  one  of  the  gracious  purposes  embraced 
in  the  precious  gift  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  took  our  nature 
upon  him  that  through  death  he  might  destroy  him  that  had  the 
power  of  death,  and  deliver  them  who  through  fear  of  death  were  all 
their  lifetime  subject  to  bondage. 

But  whence  became  we  thus  guilty  and  obnoxious  to  all  the 
consequences  of  guilt,  in  ignorance  of  God  and  alienation  from 
him,  opposed  to  his  holy  nature,  and  labouring  under  the  curse 
which  entailed  sorrow  and  suffering,  disease  and  death,  both 
temporal  and  eternal,  upon  polluted  mortality  1  This  is  a 
question,  my  hearers,  which  no  human  wisdom  oould  ever 
answer.  Heaven  alone  possessed  the  power,  and,  blessed  be 
God,  it  possessed  the  will  to  bring  to  light  not  only  the  disease 
but  the  remedy.  And  here  is  another,  and  that  the  chief  ground 
on  which  rests  the  fundamental  truth,  that  all  men  stand  in 
need  of  a  saviour.  We  are  too  apt,  my  friends  and  brethren,  to 
consider  the  interposition  of  Christ  as  respects  our  personal 
sins  only ;  but  God's  gracious  purpose  in  making  him  to  be  sin 
for  us  had  a  previous  object  in  view,  which  was  to  reprieve  the 
offenders  from  the  sentence  of  condemnation,  under  which  the 
first  sinner  and  all  who  should  proceed  from  him  were  held, 
and  by  reconciling  the  world  to  himself,  through  his  Son,  to  put 
them  once  more  upon  trial,  with  means  to  regain  all  that  was 
forfeited.  On  this  rests  the  grace  of  the  gospel  ;  in  which 
God  makes  known  to  the  v/orld,  that  for  what  Christ  hath 
done  and  suffered  as  our  representative,  he  is  reconciled  to  his 
offending  creatures,  and  calls  upon  them  to  be  reconciled  to 


CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING.  147 

him  by  believing  in  his  only  begotten  Son,  whom  he  hath  given 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlast- 
ing life.    Hence,  we  learn,  my  brethren,  that  there  is  a  sense  in 
which,  had  Christ  never  been  given  for  us,  we  could  not  but 
have  perished,  that  is,   we  must  have  remained  exposed  to  all 
the  consequences  of  Adam's  sin,   both  temporal  and  eternal, 
without  the  remotest  possibility  of  escape  ;  and  this  we  have 
exemplified  to  us  in  the  continuance  of  those  temporal  evils 
which  are  now  the  means  of  our  probation,  and  are  hereafter  to 
be  entirely  done  away  in  that  higher  state    to  which  Jesus 
Christ  hath  undertaken  to  advance  all  those  who  believe  and 
obey  him.     Thus  we  see  that  infants,  who  certainly  have  not 
sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's  transgression,  are  never- 
theless subject  to  pain  and  suffering,    to   disease  and   death, 
equally  with  those  who  are  personally  guilty,  which  proves  the 
state  of  condemnation  under  which  all  mankind  are  by  nature, 
and  the  consequent  necessity  that  they  should  be  delivered  from 
it.     From  hence  we  also  learn,  that  this  deliverance,  of  which 
all  stand  in  need,  and  which   Christ  has  wrought  for  us,  is 
not  absolute  and  unconditional,  but  dependant  on  the  condition 
of  our  believing  in  him  whom  God  hath  sent.     We  can  be,  and 
we  are,  accounted  righteous  in  the  sight  of  God,  or,  as  the  text 
expresses  it,  we  are  made  the  righteousness  of  God,  only  by  faith 
in    Christ  our  righteousness.      This  we    can    entertain    and 
manifest  no  otherwise  than  by  embracing  and    obeying  the 
gos])el ;  and  such  is  the  importance  of  the  gospel  message,  so 
every  way  suited  to  our  Avants  and  fitted  to  our  state,  that  our 
Saviour  declares  of  all  to  whom  the  gospel  has  come,  he  that 
believeth  not  is  condemned  already  ;  and  the  wrath  of  God  abideth 
on  him.     This  should  be  an  alarming  consideration  to  that  great 
number  who  are  favoured  by  the  mercy  of  God  with  the  gospel 
and  yet  make  light  of  the  salvation  it  offers,  comforting  them 
selves  with  the  delusive  hope,  that  an  unprofessed  and  unprac- 
tised religion  will  profit  them,  though  his  own  most  firm  word 
declares,  that  whosoever  is  not  for  him  is  against  him;  and  ichoso- 
ever  shall  be  ashamed  of  me  and  my  words,  says  he,  of  him  ivill  I 
also  be  ashamed  before  my  Father  and  the  holy  angels. 

But  there  is  yet  another  and  more  familiar  ground  on  which 


148  CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING. 

to  demonstrate  that  all  men  stand  in  need  of  a  Saviour,  and  that 
is,  our  personal  condition,  my  hearers,  as  sinners,  both  by  na- 
ture and  practice. 

As  there  is  no  just  view  which  we  can  take  of  Almighty  God 
which  presents  us  with  any  thing  like  imperfection  in  his  nature 
and  attributes,  so  there  is  none  which  we  can  take  of  ourselves 
but  what  is  loaded  with  imperfection,  sin,  and  guilt.  Wicked 
men,  indeed,  would  gladly  flatter  themselves  that  this  is  not  so,' 
and  particularly  do  they  wish  to  think  that  God  is  so  entirely 
merciful  that  his  attribute  of  justice  will  be  left  out  of  sight  in 
his  dealings  with  sinners.  So  that  notwithstanding  the  clear  and 
express  declarations  of  his  holy  word,  confirmed  by  his  laying 
upon  his  only  and  beloved  Son  the  iniquities  of  us  all,  and  ex- 
acting from  him  the  penalty  due  by  us,  they  venture  to  enter- 
tain the  delusion  that  the  religion  of  the  gospel  requires  only  the 
outward  morality  of  the  life,  without  the  renewed  transformation 
of  the  heart.  Thus,  also,  do  men  of  proud  and  unhumbled 
minds  contend  for  the  meritorious  righteousness  of  their  own 
corrupt,  broken,  and  imperfect  performance  of  the  duties  which 
are  owing  by  the  creature  to  the  Creator,  and  by  one  creature 
to  another. 

But  neither  of  these  deceits  can  stand  the  test  even  of  reason, 
far  less  of  revelation.  For,  independent  of  the  direct  testimony 
furnished  by  the  wonderful  plan  of  our  redemption,  as  set  forth 
in  the  words  of  my  text — that  nothing  but  an  act  of  the  highest 
love  and  mercy,  of  the  most  wonderful  wisdom  and  contrivance 
— an  act  which  even  the  angels  desire  to  look  into,  was  compe- 
tent to  arrest  the  sentence  of  the  broken  law  and  convert  a 
state  of  alienation,  sin,  and  death  (which  is  that  of  man  when 
considered  as  divested  of  Christ)  into  a  state  of  reconciliation, 
trial,  and  hope — independent  of  this  testimony,  I  say,  the  very 
best  of  us  all,  even  with  the  aid  of  divine  grace,  cannot  but  be 
conscious  of  such  impurity  of  motive,  such  weakness  of  endea- 
vour, such  failure  in  duty,  such  actual  transgression  in  what 
we  know  to  be  forbidden,  and  therefore  contrary  to  God,  as 
by  no  possibility  to  stand  the  scrutiny  of  his  holy  and  righteous 
judgment.  And  if  it  be  thus  under  the  grace  of  the  gospel,  in 
the  regeneration,  as  our  Saviour  terms  it,  what  must  it  have 


CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFF    RING.  149 

been  had  this  great  and  effectual  sin  offering  never  been  made  *? 
And  what,  let  me  ask,  must  it  yet  be  to  those  who  either 
proudly  reject  or  carelessly  neglect  it  now  that  it   is  made, 
and  the  highest  assurance  given  that  there  is  no  other  nor  any 
more  sacrifice  for  sins,  nor  any  other  name  or  means  by  the 
which  we  can  be  accepted  of  God,  obtain  his  mercy,  and  find 
grace  to  help  in  working  out  our  eternal  salvation  1     If  the 
righteous  scarcely  he  saved — if  the  most  holy  and  righteous  per- 
son that  ever  lived  can  be  saved  no  otherwise  than  by  beino- 
made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Christ,  where  shall  the  ungodly 
and  the  sinner  appear  ?    With  what  face  shall  the  gospel  sinner, 
for  whom  all  this  is  provided,  to  whom  it  is  freely  offered,  and 
by  whom  it  is  impiously  slighted  and  rejected,  meet  God  in  judg- 
ment 1     Let  me  beseech  you,  then,  my  friends,  who  continue  to 
treat  the  gospel  of  our  salvation  as  a  mere  visiting  acquaintance, 
but  contract  no  familiarity  with  its  saving  grace,  nor  endeavour 
at  any  nearer  intimacy  with  its  great  author— let  me  beseech 
you  to  consider  where  it  must  end.    If  you  are  conscious  of  one 
sin,  of  one  disobedience  to  the  law  of  Christ,  much  more  of 
habitual  disregard  of  his  gracious  appointments  and  ordinances, 
how  are  you  to  escape  the  wages  due  to  it  1   Can  you  conceive 
it  possible  that  God  should  give  such  a  conclusive  proof  of  his 
hatred  and  abhorrence  of  all  sin  as  to  make  his  pardon  of  it  to 
depend  upon  the  voluntary  sufferings  and  death  of  his  only  Son, 
as  a  sacrifice  to  the  justice  of  his  holy  law,  that  those  towards 
whom  this  rich  redeeming  love  is  displayed  might  continue  to 
sin  with  impunity  1    No,  God  forbid  !     He  was  given,  and  he 
gave  himself  for  us,  that  he  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity. 
And  observe,  1  pray  you,  none  will  ever  be  accounted  righteous 
for  his  sake,  or,  as  the  text  expresses  it,  be  made  the  righteousness 
of  God  in  him,  but  those  who  become,  in  fact,  righteous  by  the 
means  he  hath  provided  and  made  known  in  the  gospel. 

But  let  me  ask  you,  can  means,  however  effectual,  profit 
those  who  never  make  use  of  them  1  Alas  !  my  friends,  be  not 
deceived  ;  all  the  wonders  of  our  redemption  by  Jesus  Christ 
are  set  forth,  and  made  known,  and  offered,  and  pressed  upon 
sinful  mortals  to  the  intent  that  they  should  use  and  apply  them, 
and  to  such  only  as  thus  act  are  they  made  the  power  of  God 


150  CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING. 

unto  salvation.     While  to  those  who  neglect  and  despise  the 
wise  and  wonderful  means  provided  to  enlighten  the  ignorance 
of  fallen  creatures,  to  reprieve  condemned  rebels,  and  constitute 
sinners  righteous  in  the  sight  of  a  pure  and  holy  God,  through 
Jesus  Christ,  the  mercy  of  God  and  the  love  of  Christ  thus 
disregarded  will  prove  the  worm  that  never  dies,  the  fire  that 
never  shall  be  quenched  throughout  an  undone  eternity.     Be 
persuaded,  then,  I  beseech  you,  while  the  sparing  mercy  of  God 
surrounds  you  with  the  means  of  grace,  to  consider  seriously,  that 
as  even  innocent  creatures  have  no  claim  of  right  to  eternal  life, 
for  it  is  the  gift  of  God  through  Jesus   Christ  our  Lord,  far 
less  can  guilty,  sinful  creatures  form  any  reasonable  hope  of  it 
from  any  thing  in  themselves.     For,  as  all  have  sinned  and  come 
short  of  the  glory  of  God,  so  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven 
given  among  men  whereby  we  must  be  saved,  only  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth — whom  God  hath  made  to  be  sin  for  us, 
that  we  might  he  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  show  that  the  righteousness  or  morality 
of  our  lives  can  avail  us  nothing,  for  acceptance  with  God, 
otherwise  than  under  the  shield  of  Christ's  perfect  righteous- 
ness. 

The  most  obvious  ground  on  which  the  truth  of  this  proposi- 
tion rests  is,  that  as  nothing  but  what  is  pure  and  perfect  can  be 
agreeable  in  the  sight  of  God,  or  hope  for  acceptance  with  him, 
and  as  neither  the  thoughts,  words,  or  actions  of  fallen  crea- 
tures can  possibly  possess  this  character,  therefore,  there  can 
be  nothing  in  them  meritorious  of  reward.  When  we  have 
done  all,  we  are  but  unprofitable  servants,  we  have  done  no 
more  than  our  bare  duty.  This  is  the  hard  saying  which  is  so 
grievous  to  the  pride  and  self-sufficiency  of  human  nature.  But 
it  is  a  clear  consequence  from  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  our 
religion,  that  we  are  saved  by  grace  ;  which  means  this,  that  the 
whole  of  our  salvation,  from  first  to  last,  not  only  in  the  great 
procuring  cause  which  effected  reconciliation  with  God  for  us, 
but  in  the  fruit  thereof,  in  our  hearts  and  lives,  in  all  holy 
desires,  all  good  counsels,  and  all  just  works,  is  the  operation  of 
God  in  and  upon  us  by  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  which  is  the  pur- 
chase of  Christ's  death,  essential  to  the  renewal  of  our  fallen 


CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING.  151 

natures,  and  on  his  ascension  into  heaven  was  shed  abroad  upon 
the  world  to  prepare  mankind  for  the  gospel,  and  to  enable  them 
to  profit  by  it.  Whence  it  follows,  that  as  we  have  nothing  that 
we  have  not  received,  to  look  upon  our  good  actions  as  wrought 
by  our  own  strength,  or  as  at  all  uieritorious  of  reward,  or  even 
as  free  from  imperfection,  is,  not  only  to  rob  God  of  the  glory 
due  to  his  grace,  but  to  show  evidently  that  we  know  nothing  of 
ourselves  as  yet  as  we  ought  to  know  it — of  the  true  condition 
of  human  nature  as  fallen  and  depraved,  and  of  what  God  hath 
done  to  raise  it,  and  revive  his  image  upon  it,  and  bring  it  back 
to  himself.  And  this  is  confirmed  to  us  both  by  observation  and 
experience.  For  those  who  contend  for  the  morality  of  their 
lives  as  meritorious  of  salvation,  and  rest  their  hope  of  hereafter 
on  this  sandy  foundation,  are  generally  such  persons  as,  though 
not  in  direct  opposition  to  the  gospel,  are  yet  not  professors  of 
religion,  or,  if  they  chance  to  be  so,  are  such  for  reasons  distinct 
from  any  saving  conviction  of  their  own  danger  because  of 
personal  sin,  or  from  any  realizing  view  of  Christ  as  the  end 
of  the  law  for  righteousness,  to  every  one  that  believeth.  The 
knowledge  of  the  fact  as  revealed,  may  bring  men  to  assent  in 
terms  to  Christ  in  all  his  oflices  as  set  forth  in  the  gospel ;  but 
nothing  short  of  a  deep  sense  of  their  own  personal  guilt  and 
danger  by  reason  of  sin,  such  as  can  be  wrought  in  the  heart  of 
man  by  the  Holy  Spirit  alone,  and  that  in  the  Lord  only 
have  we  righteousness  and  strength,  can  bring  them  to  renounce 
themselves,  their  poor,  broken,  impure,  and  imperfect  works, 
earnestly  desiring  to  win  Christ  and  to  be  found  in  him;  not 
having  iheir  own  righteousness,  but  that  which  is  through  the  faith 
of  Christ — whom  God  hath  made  to  be  sin  for  us,  that  we  tni.o-ht 
be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him.  This  we  know  to  be 
perfect,  and,  therefore,  acceptable  before  God  ;  our  own  we 
know  to  be  imperfect,  and,  therefore,  not  to  be  trusted  to  in  so 
serious  a  concern  as  the  loss  or  salvation  of  our  souls.  That  it 
must  be  perfect  and  complete,  lacking  nothing,  the  text  teaches 
us,  inasmuch  as  even  the  sacrifice  through  which  mercy  reaches 
the  sinner  was  required  to  be  spotless.  Him  tvho  kneic  no  sin 
hath  God  made  to  be  sin  for  us.  He  can  accept  nothing  polluted 
or  imperfect.     Hence  we  see  the  danger  of  trusting  to  our  own 


152  CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING. 

righteousness,  the  absolute  necessity  of  an  interest  in  Christ, 
the  Lord  our  righteousness ;  and  the  depth  of  that  wisdom 
which  hath  provided  for  fallen  creatures  a  righteousness,  in 
which  to  see  God  and  live.  Hence  also  it  is  called  in  Scripture 
the  righteousness  of  God,  because  it  is  perfect,  and  of  his  institu- 
tion, ordination,  and  appointment,  and  that  v^^hich  alone  he  will 
accept  from  the  sinner  for  justification  of  life  ;  and  it  is  called 
the  righteousness  of  God  which  is  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ, 
because  it  is  received  and  applied  only  by  faith  in  Christ  as 
the  procuring  cause.     Hence  we  learn, 

HI.  Thirdly,  that  we  can  secure  an  interest  in  the  satisfaction 
made  to  the  divine  justice  by  the  death  of  Christ  no  other- 
wise than  by  so  receiving  the  testimony  God  hath  given  of  his 
Son  as  to  believe  and  obey  the  gospel. 

That  God,  intending  to  redeem  fallen  creatures,  should  make 
known  to  them  both  the  method  and  the  conditions  of  his 
mercy,  is  not  to  be  disputed  without  involving  an  absurdity. 
And,  admitting  we  are  redeemed,  the  only  inquiry  which  befits 
and  can  be  useful  to  those  who  are  the  objects  of  redemption,  is, 
by  what  method  and  on  what  conditions  is  it  effected.  Now  we 
all  profess  to  believe,  in  one  sense  or  another,  that  God  has  in- 
terposed by  his  Son  to  turn  away  the  sad  consequences  of  sin  and 
rebellion  from  his  guilty  creatures  ;  and  had  we  no  gospel,  no 
revelation,  or  was  it  hard  to  come  at,  and  difficult  to  understand, 
sure  I  am  we  should  consider  it  a  great  hardship,  but  should  be 
much  more  intent  than  we  now  are  to  find  out  all  that  related  to  it. 
But  surely  we  might  reflect  that  the  ease  and  readiness  with  which 
we  can  come  at  the  knowledge  of  what  most  concerns  us,  will 
serve  to  deepen  the  guilt  of  remaining  ignorant  of  or  unaffected 
by  so  gracious  a  proof  of  God's  good  will  and  tender  love  to- 
wards us  as  is  displayed  in  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Now  let  me 
ask  this  congregation  of  Christian  people,  suppose  their  eternal 
salvation  was  this  moment  to  be  decided  according  to  the  care 
and  attention  with  which  each  one  had  endeavoured  to  make 
himself  acquainted  with  the  Scriptures  as  the  revealed  will  of 
God,  how  many  of  those  now  present  would  reap  any  advan- 
tage from  such  an  offer  ?  I  make  these  remarks  and  put  this 
question,  my  hearers,  in  the  hope  it  may  startle  the  neglecters 


CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING.  153 

of  God's  word,  and  convince  them  how  vain  it  Is  to  expect 
religious  benefit  if  they  take  no  pains  to  become  religious,  that 
it  may  rouse  them  to  consider  carefully  what  it  is,  and  the 
interest  they  have  in  making  it  their  own.  For  so  sure  as  God 
hath  spoken  to  us  by  his  Son,  my  brethren,  and  we  are  to  be 
judged  by  the  word  thus  spoken,  so  sure  is  it,  that  if  we  do  not 
seek  we  shall  not  find  ;  so  sure  is  it,  that  if  the  value  of  our 
immortal  souls  does  not  interest  us,  so  as  to  inquire,  and 
that  earnestly  too,  what  must  we  do  to  be  saved,  we  never 
can  be  saved.  For  it  is  not  that  the  salvation  or  damna- 
tion of  thousands  of  such  worlds  as  this  can  in  any  way 
affect  Almighty  God,  he  is  infinitely  beyond  such  considera- 
tions, and  hath  no  need  of  the  sinful  man  ;  but  it  is  of  his 
essential  and  undeserved  goodness,  and  for  our  advantage, 
that  all  the  wonders  of  his  redeeming  love  have  been 
wrought  and  made  known  ;  so  that  the  sin  of  ingratitude  is 
added  to  that  of  disobedience,  in  all  who  fail  to  search  the 
Scriptures  and  satisfy  themselves  respecting  the  great  truths  of 
our  holy  religion.  The  testimony  which  God  hath  given  of  his 
Son  is  so  direct,  and  at  the  same  time  so  consonant  with  his 
dignity  and  the  nature  of  his  office  as  the  instructor,  propitiation, 
and  Saviour  of  sinners,  as  at  once  to  draw  the  attention  and 
deserve  the  most  serious  consideration  of  those  who  are  favour- 
ed with  it ;  while  the  unspeakable  interests  dependent  on  its 
reception  or  rejection  are  calculated  to  secure  that  accurate 
investigation  which  accountable  beings  might  fairly  be  supposed 
to  make.  Yet  notwithstanding  all  this,  on  no  other  subject  is 
so  much  carelessness  manifested,  on  no  other  do  men  so  gene- 
rally content  themselves  with  acknowledgment  in  the  gross  and 
disregard  in  the  particulars  ;  satisfied  with  the  mere  cursory 
knowledge  of  the  facts,  without  considering  the  bearing  those 
facts  have  on  their  present  and  future  welfare.  But,  my  breth- 
ren and  hearers,  the  mere  knowledge  of  the  gospel,  though  in 
itself  an  advantage,  and  one  to  be  accounted  for,  is  no  other- 
wise effectual  than  as  it  is  improved  in  our  practice.  The 
testimony  God  hath  given  of  his  Son,  is  to  assure  us  that  we 
may  safely  trust  our  souls  to  his  saving  power.  To  reject  or 
neglect  this  testimony  is  to  make  God  a  Uar,  and  to  bar  our- 
VoL.  II.— 20 


154 


CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING. 


selves  out  from  any  entrance  of  religion  into  our  souls.  For  to 
as  many  as  receive  him,  and  to  them  only,  does  he  give  the 
power  or  privilege  to  become  the  sons  of  God.  While  we  con- 
tent ourselves,  then,  with  the  mere  knowledge  of  the  gospel, 
without  becoming  the  disciples  of  Christ  by  an  open  profession 
of  him  as  our  only  Saviour,  or  making  such  profession  without 
obeying  the  laws  and  rules  of  his  kingdom,  we  deceive  ourselves 
if  we  expect  any  benefit  from  his  death.   For, 

IV.  Fourthly,  to  those  only  who  thus  receive  and  apply  it,  is 
this  wonderful  appointment  of  God,  set  forth  in  the  text,  made 
effectual  to  salvation. 

That  a  gracious  God,  in  bringing  salvation  to  sinners  should 
have  so  appointed  as  to  make  the  whole  dependant  on  another, 
and  not  on  the  sinners  themselves,  is  a  stumbling  block  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  world.  But  we  may  be  sure,  from  its  being  thus 
ordered,  that  it  is  not  only  most  consonant  with  the  perfections 
and  dignity  of  God,  as  the  supreme  governor  of  the  universe, 
but  the  best  and  the  wisest,  also,  for  those  for  whom  it  is  provided. 
And  the  reason  of  thus  providing  for  us  through  the  righteous- 
ness of  another,  is  plain  and  convincing,  even  to  our  poor  appre- 
hensions. For,  says  the  apostle,  ichat  the  lavo  could  not  do,  in 
that  it  icas  weak  through  the  Jlesh,  God  sending  his  own  Son  in 
the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh, 
that  the  righteousness  of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us  who  walk 
not  after  thejleshbut  after  theSpiuir.  The  law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect; 
but  whence  could  fallen  creatures,  with  faculties  impaired  and 
depraved,  fulfil  its  holy  conditions,  even  say  that  no  previous 
condemnation  was  to  be  removed  to  make  room  for  a  new  trial ; 
and  the  goodness  of  God  is  as  eminently  displayed  in  providing 
a  particular  method  for  bestowing  his  favour  upon  us,  as  if  he 
did  it  without  any  such  particular  provision.  The  question  is 
not  in  how  many  or  what  other  ways  the  omnipotence  of  God 
could  have  saved  sinners,  but  according  to  what  method  and 
upon  what  conditions  has  he  done  it.  This  is  all  that  concerns 
us  in  the  first  place  ;  as  humble,  thankful  acceptance,  and  dili- 
gent observance  of  the  means  appointed,  is  what  concerns  us 
ill  the  next  place.  For  we  may  be  perfectly  sure,  that  God 
having  condescended  to  mark  out  a  way  for  the  attainment  of 


CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING.  155 

heaven,  that  and  that  alone  can  bring  us  thither.  Vain  and 
ruinous,  therefore,  is  the  expectation  that  the  gospel  will  profit 
us,  unless  we  take  care  to  profit  by  the  grace  it  brings  us  ;  and 
miserable  and  dreadful  the  disappointment  of  those  who  consider 
so  little  the  mercy  and  wisdom  of  God,  in  making  him  icho  knew 
no  sin  to  be  sin  for  us,  that  ice  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of 
God  in  him,  as  never  to  have  taken  one  step  towards  securing 
the  advantages  so  freely  offered  us  in  Christ  Jesus.  No,  not 
even  so  much  as  professing  the  religion  he  taught,  or  observing 
the  ordinances  he  has  commanded.  Oh !  to  how  many  thousands, 
if  they  continue  thus,  will  that  merciful  Saviour,  who  was  con- 
tent to  be  made  sin  for  them,  have  to  say  in  the  great  day  of 
eternity — /  never  knew  you  !  Lord,  were  we  not  born  under  thy 
gospel,  baptized  in  thy  name,  and  knew  we  not  thee  always  as 
the  Saviour  of  sinners,  may  they  say.  But,  alas  !  what  will  they 
answer  to  such  replies  as  these,  my  careless,  unconverted  hearers 
— Have  ye  kept  your  baptismal  vow  1  Were  you  saved  from  sin 
when  in  the  world  1  Did  you  obey  the  precepts  and  example  I 
left  with  you  1  Did  you  ever  openly  confess  me  before  men  1 
How  often  have  I  been  set  forth  before  your  eyes,  evidently 
crucified  for  you,  and  you  have  turned  your  backs  upon  my 
body  broken  and  blood  shed  to  buy  your  souls  1  Lord,  we 
trusted  in  thy  mercy.  And  hath  not  mercy  and  warning  waited 
upon  you  twenty,  thirty,  forty,  fifty,  sixty,  seventy  years;  but 
now  the  door  of  mercy  is  shut.  I  am  no  longer  a  Saviour,  but  a 
Judge.  Ye  would  not  be  made  holy  in  your  day  of  grace,  ye 
cannot  he  made  happy  in  eternity.  Depart  ye  cursed  to  the  por- 
tion ye  have  chosen.  O  that  God  may  be  pleased  to  sanctify 
his  truth  to  your  hearts,  and  that  that  merciful  Saviour,  whom  you 
now  slight  may  yet  intercede  for  you  and  lengthen  your  day 
of  grace,  and  give  you  to  perceive  and  to  seek  after  the  things 
which  make  for  your  peace  before  they  are  for  ever  hid  from 
your  eyes. 

And,  dear  brethren,  let  us  ever  bear  in  mind  the  high  purpose 
for  which  God  made  him  who  knew  no  sin  to  be  sin  for  us — the 
holy  and  merciful  design  with  which  he  gave  himself  for  us — the 
gracious  end  of  all  the  ordinances  and  commandments  of  our 
Lord,  that  our  lives  may  be  answerable  to  the  hope  we  profess  ; 


156  CHRIST    THE    SIN    OFFERING. 

and  that  at  the  last  day,  when  he  shall  come  again  with  power  and 
great  glory  to  judge  the  world,  we  may  be  found  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  in  him  who  loved  us,  and  gave  himself  for  us,  and 
washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  made  us  kings 
and  priests  unto  God,  even  his  Father.  To  whom,  in  the 
unity  of  the  eternal  Godhead,  be  glory  and  praise  now  and  for 
ever  ! 


SERMON    XIV. 


THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST. 


1   Timothy  ii.  5. 

"  For  there  is  one  God,  and  one  mediator  between  God  and  men,  the  man  Chbist 

Jesus." 

From  the  nature  of  God  and  the  actual  condition  of  the 
world,  it  would  be  utterly  impossible,  without  further  informa- 
tion, to  deduce  the  reasonableness,  the  obligation,  or  the  advan- 
tage of  any  religious  duty  whatever,  on  the  part  of  man  towards 
his  Maker.  That  the  perfections  of  Almighty  God  are  all  abso- 
lute, and  without  any  limitation,  deficiency,  or  qualification  what- 
ever, is  one  of  those  original,  self-evident  truths,  which  are  in- 
dependent of  all  proof  and  admit  of  no  more  question  than  the 
existence  and  necessary  attributes  of  the  Supreme  Moral  Gover- 
nor of  the  Universe.  That  the  condition  of  man  is  the  very 
reverse  of  this  is  equally  evident,  from  our  experience  of  our- 
selves and  from  what  observation  teaches  us  of  others.  Hence, 
as  there  can  be  no  point  of  union  between  perfection  and  imper- 
fection in  the  parties  themselves,  the  claims  of  natural  religion, 
as  it  is  called,  are  totally  groundless,  and  all  arguments  founded 
on  such  an  assumption  are  mere  nullities,  because  the  thing 
itself  never  did  and  never  can  exist. 

If  man  is  now  what  his  Maker  originally  created  him,  and 
acting  now  in  his  every  day  conduct  according  to  the  law  at 
first  impressed  upon  his  nature,  which  must  be  the  case  if  he 
has  never  swerved  from  God,  then  he  is  a  guiltless  creature, 
and  nothing  more  or  better  can  be  required  of  him,  even  by 
infinite  justice.  But  if  this  is  not  the  case,  if  by  the  Cv;fnmon 
consent  of  natural  reason,  and  by  the  higher  authority  ol  heav- 
enly revelation,  he  is  shown  to  be  a  fallen  creature,  departed 
from  his  original  character,  separated,  in  consequence,  from  God 


158  THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST. 

his  Maker,  with  broken  faculties  and  depraved  affections,  then 
is  he  at  once  a  guilty  and  a  powerless  being,  without  a  shadow 
of  help  in  himself  to  alter  or  amend  this  miserable  state,  to 
propitiate  God,  or  to  render  him  any  acceptable,  much  less 
rewardable  service.  Hence,  if  religion  has  any  claims  upon  us 
at  all,  it  must  be  upon  the  principle  set  forth  in  my  text ;  it  must 
be  upon  this  demonstrable  position — that  if  there  be  a  point  of 
union  between  God  as  he  is  and  man  as  he  is,  it  must  be  found 
in  some  third  person,  whose  qualifications  are  such  as  fully  to 
meet  the  claims  and  demands  of  the  one,  and  the  wants  and  ne- 
cessities of  the  other  of  the  two  parties  to  this  awful  controversy. 

Irrefragable  as  this  position  is  from  the  plainest  principles  of 
reason,  it  is,  happily,  my  brethren,  put  beyond  all  dispute  by  the 
whole  structure  of  the  religion  we  profess,  whose  fundamental 
doctrines  are  the  fall  and  depravation  of  man  by  sin,  and  his 
recovery  by  and  through  a  mediator  between  God  and  man. 

That  we  should  have  right  views  on  this  subject  is,  therefore, 
of  the  highest  importance  ;  because  all  application  on  our  part 
to  God,  either  to  obtain  his  favour  or  to  deprecate  his  wrath, 
must  spring  from  these  two  sources  ;  first,  a  sense  of  want  and 
exposure  on  our  part ;  secondly,  some  well  grounded  hope  that 
God  is  placable  and  may  be  sought  unto. 

Deprive  mankind  of  either  of  these,  I  care  not  which,  and 
you  deprive  them  of  all  religious  motive,  obligation,  help,  and 
hope.  And  in  proportion  as  these  doctrines  are  realized  in  the 
just  extent  of  their  application,  or  neutralized  and  perverted  by 
the  natural  enmity  of  the  carnal  mind  to  their  humbling,  yet 
saving  efficacy,  will  the  fruits  of  genuine  religion  or  counterfeit 
Christianity  be  visible.  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than 
that  is  laid,  -which  is  Jesus  Christ.  JVo  man  cometh  to  the 
Father  but  by  me,  says  our  Lord,  and  I  am  yet  to  learn  where 
or  how  fallen  man  can  obtain  any  knowledge  of  God  as  a  God 
of  mercy,  unconnected  with  Jesus  Christ  as  the  procuring 
cause  of  that  pardon,  grace,  and  eternal  life  which  is  offered  to 
a  world  of  sinners,  through  faith  in  his  only  saving  name. 

Let  us  then,  my  brethren,  endeavour  to  obtain  clear  and 
settled  views  on  this  most  influential  subject,  that  we  may  be 
guarded  alike  from  entertaining  a  hope  for  which  we  can  render 


THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST.  159 

no  satisfactory  reason,  or  from  trusting  to  an  expectation  whose 
foundation  is  laid  in  the  sand. 

For  there  is  one  God,  and  one  mediator  between  God  and  meny 
the  man  Christ  Jesus. 

In  furtherance  of  this  object,  I  will  consider. 
First,  the  nature  of  our  Lord's  mediatorial  office. 
Secondly,  the  suitableness  of  the  person  appointed. 
Thirdly,  our  duty  and  privilege  under  this  provision  of  the 
love  of  God  our  Saviour. 

L  First,  the  nature  of  our  Lord's  mediatorial  office, 
A  mediator,  as  the  word  itself  implies,  means  one  who  inter- 
poses between  persons  at  variance,  who  uses  influence  of  any 
kind  to  reconcile  and  restore  to  friendly  intercourse  those  who 
are  separated  from  each  other.  The  office  which  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  sustains,  therefore,  is  of  this  kind,  and  from  the 
condition  of  human  nature,  must  be  in  coniinual  operation,  that 
is,  must  be  exercised  so  long  as  any  variance  shall  continue 
between  God  and  men.  Hence  we  read,  that  he  ever  liveth  to 
make  intercession/or  us. 

It  is,  however,  by  considering  the  cause  and  the  consequences 
of  the  rupture  and  separation  between  God  and  his  creature, 
that  we  shall  best  understand  and  appreciate  this  relation  in 
which  the  man  Jesus  Christ  is  presented  to  us. 

The  cause,  then,  was  sin,  manifested  by  the  transgression  of 
an  express  command  of  God  by  our  first  parents,  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  whole  human  race  ;  and  the  consequences  were, 
the  loss  of  God's  favour,  exclusion  from  his  presence,  spiritual 
death,  and  exposure  to  all  the  penalties  previously  denounced 
against  disobedience  by  the  law  which  was  broken ;  and  these 
effects  followed,  not  singly  to  the  first  transgressors,  but  as  they 
were  spared  by  the  mediation  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  reprieved 
from  the  immediate  execution  of  the  sentence,  to  us  also,  their 
descendants.  Here  I  would  digress  for  a  moment,  my  hearers, 
to  obviate  a  very  common  ground  of  objection  and  unbelief,  in 
considering  it  unjust  to  extend  these  consequences  to  the 
unoffending  offspring  of  the  first  sinners.  This,  however,  as 
well  as  all  other  unbelief,  proceeds  from  not  duly  considering 
the  subject.     As  our  first  parents,  on  their  trial,  stood  for  their 


160  THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST. 

posterity  as  well  as  for  themselves,  and  we  should  have  reaped 
the  blessed  effects  of  their  faithfuhiess  had  they  withstood  the 
temptation,  the  justice  of  God  stands  clear  of  all  imputation 
in  our  sharing  in  and  suffering  under  the  consequences  of  their 
sin.  As  a  fallen  sinner,  we  read,  that  Adam  begat  a  son  in  his 
own  likeness,  as  an  obedient  believer  the  event  would  in  like 
manner  have  corresponded  with  his  condition. 

Sin  having  thus  entered  into  that  new  created  world,  which 
its  Almighty  Maker  pronounced  very  good,  and  the  conse- 
quences denounced  against  it  being  inevitable  from  the  truth  and 
justice  of  Jehovah,  we  have  but  to  ask  ourselves,  what  help 
or  means  there  was  with  the  sinner  himself  to  avoid  or  escape 
from  the  curse,  to  enable  us  to  form  some  just  and  proper  notion 
of  the  mediatorial  office  of  our  ever  blessed  Redeemer. 

For  in  the  first  place,  the  justice  of  God  demanded,  inexora- 
bly, that  full  satisfaction  should  be  made  to  the  broken  law  ;  but 
this  involved  the  personal  destruction  of  the  offender  by  the 
suffering  of  death,  and  by  consequence  precluded  all  exercise  of 
mercy.  A  substitute,  therefore,  must  be  found  equal  to  the 
extent  of  this  demand,  to  suffering  and  overcoming  the  death 
denounced  against  sin.  And  this  substitute  presented  himself 
for  us  in  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  who  took  our  nature 
upon  him,  that  through  death  he  might  destroy  death,  and  him  that 
had  the  power  of  it. 

Secondly,  sin  itself,  as  that  which  God  abhors,  and  upon 
which  the  purity  and  holiness  of  his  nature  cannot  look  with  the 
least  degree  of  allowance,  was  to  be  put  away  and  banished  for 
ever  from  the  presence  of  God.  But  what  sinner  can  undo  his 
own  sin  as  an  offence  against  God  1  The  means  for  this  also 
were  to  be  found  in  another,  and  that  other  was  found  in  the 
same  Son  of  God,  who  afterwards  became  the  man  Christ 
Jesus,  icho  for  us  men  and  for  ou  salvation  came  down  from 
heaven;  who  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself,  who 
undertook  to  bring  in  everlasting  righteousness,  and  is  now 
carrying  on  and  will  finally  accomplish  this  mighty  and  glorious 
work,  in  that  new  heaven  and  new  earth  wherein  righteousness 
shall  dwell  for  ever,  while  death  and  hell  shall  be  cast  into  the 
lake  of  fire. 


THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST.  161 

Thirdly,  the  renewal  of  spiritual  life  in  the  sinner  spirit- 
ually dead  was  essential  to  give  this  holy  and  merciful  under- 
taking its  effect,  and  to  fit  fallen  man  for  the  new  state  of  trial 
thus  procured  for  him. 

But  who  can  confer  this  indispensable  gift  but  Gou  only  1  Is 
it,  can  it  be,  in  man  fallen  to  renew  himself?  Is  it  in  man,  the 
sinner,  destitute  and  helpless,  to  turn  and  prepare  himself  by  his 
own  natural  strength  and  good  works  to  faith  and  calling  upon 
God  1  No,  my  brethren,  by  every  testimony  which  can  give 
certainty  to  truth,  and  by  every  proof  which  experience  can 
supply,  that  ivkich  is  horn  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  and  can  rise  no 
higher  ;  thatonhj  which  is  horn  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit,  or  spiritual. 

Here  then  is  a  difficulty,  were  there  no  other,  insuperable  to 
human  power,  beyond  the  reach  of  human  means,  which  can  be 
removed  only  by  and  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  given  for  this  purpose,  carries  on  the  great 
work  of  regenerating,  converting  and  sanctifying  the  world. 
Hence  we  read,  that  ichen  he  had  hy  himself  purged  our  sins, 
hearing  them  in  his-  own  body  on  the  tree,  he  rose  from  the  dead, 
ascended  up  on  high,  led  captivity  captive,  and  received  gifts 
for  men. 

Thus  we  learn,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  to  understand  the 
nature  and  extent  of  the  office  which  the  man  Christ  Jesus 
fills,  as  mediator  between  God  and  men.  That  it  is  not  confined 
to  his  present  intercession  for  sinners,  as  we  are  apt  too  carelessly 
to  imagine  ;  but  that  it  reaches  back  to  the  first  procurement  of 
mercy,  pervades  the  whole  order  of  God's  providence,  and 
extends  forward  to  the  final  consummation  of  the  mystery  of 
God  in  Christ,  when  all  enemies  being  subdued  under  his  feet, 
and  the  gracious  purpose  of  his  undertaking  the  office  being 
answered  in  the  everlasting  salvation  of  all  who  believe  and  obey 
the  gospel,  the  mediatorial  kingdom  of  grace  shall  end  and 
the  kingdom  of  glory  commence,  where  there  shall  be  no 
more  sin,  no  more  death,  neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain  • 
where  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  the  eyes  of  his  servants, 
and  the  Lamb  lohich  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne,  which  redeemed 
them  to  God  by  his  blood,  shall  feed  them,  and  lead  them  beside 

Vol.  II.— 21 


162  THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST. 

living  fountains  of  water,  and  God  himself  shall  be  with  them,  and 
he  their  God. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  consider  the  suitableness  of  the  person 
appointed  to  fill  this  office. 

That  the  office  of  a  peace-maker,  a  reconciler  of  differences 
between  those  who  are  at  variance,  may  be  performed  by  any 
who  possess  that  kind  and  Christian  disposition,  we  all  under- 
stand, my  friends.  Yet  there  is  to  our  apprehensions  a  certain 
fitness  and  propriety  of  character,  according  to  the  condition  of 
the  parties  and  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  in  the  person  who 
undertakes  the  office,  which  gives  weight  and  impression  to  his 
representations ;  and  we  know  by  experience  that  considera- 
tions which  produce  no  effect  when  urged  by  one  person,  will, 
nevertheless,  succeed  when  presented  by  another.  Hence  we 
are  prepared  to  expect,  and  I  think  I  may  say  to  require,  that 
the  person  who  stands  in  this  relation  between  God  and  men, 
should  possess  that  fitness  and  that  propriety  of  character  and 
condition,  as  respects  the  parties,  which  shall  give  reasonable 
ground  to  hope  for  success. 

Now,  in  every  requisite,  according  to  our  comprehension  of 
them,  the  man  Christ  Jesus  will  be  found  not  only  suitable, 
but  the  only  person  capable  of  sustaining  this  office,  of  meeting 
fully  all  its  requirements,  and  supplying  all  its  necessities. 

First,  as  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  and  consequently  of 
the  same  nature  and  essence  with  his  Father,  he  alone  was 
worthy  and  competent  to  step  forward  either  to  ask  or  to  offer 
in  our  behalf. 

To  perceive  this  more  clearly  let  us  reflect  a  moment,  my 
brethren,  on  the  nature  of  the  controversy. 

This  was  not  a  case  in  which  there  might  be  blame  on  both 
sides,  and  by  mutual  concession  the  breach  be  repaired ;  but 
one  in  which  the  offence  was  altogether  on  one  side. 

This  was  not  a  case  of  offence  between  equals  either  in  na- 
ture or  condition,  but  between  parties  infinitely  removed  from 
each  other  in  both  these  respects. 

This  was  not  a  case  of  offence  finite  in  its  nature  and  tran- 
sient in  its  consequences,  but  permanently  opposed  to  and 
opposing  all  the  perfections  of  Deity. 


THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST.  163 

This  was  not  a  case  in  which  compensation  could  be  made 
by  the  offender,  but  one  which  involved  his  utter  destruction  as 
the  only  vindication  commensurate  with  the  offence. 

And  the  object  to  be  gained  was  not  mere  reconciliation,  but 
beyond  this,  the  procuring-  of  means  to  undo  the  mischief,  to 
defeat  the  consequences,  and  restore  the  offender,  on  proper  and 
possible  conditions,  to  the  happiness  he  had  forfeited— to  con- 
vert a  state  of  sin  and  death  into  one  of  holiness  and  life 
eternal. 

Now,  my  dear  brethren,  iViends,  and  hearers,  where,  in  the 
whole  range  of  possible  thought,  can  a  person  be  found  compe- 
tent to  mterpose  and  to  mediate  with  effect  in  such  a  strife  and 
between  such  parties,  other  than  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  as  set 
forth  to  us  in  the  word  of  God  1  Where  else  shall  a  Day's  Man,  as 
Job  styles  him,  be  found,  qualified  to  lay  his  hand  upon  both,  that 
IS,  possessing  properties  where  both  might  meet  and  be  at  one  ? 
Suppose,  for  a  moment,  that  the  offence  was  only  this  day  com- 
mitted, and  we  were  met  to  consult  how  to  undo  it  or  escape 
from  the  consequences,  to  what  quarter  could  we  turn,  to  what 
resource  could  we  resort  ?    >Suppose  we  were  willing  to  make 
submission  and  to  implore  forgiveness,  whom  among  our  fellows 
in  iniquity  should  we  pitcli  upon  to  appear  before  God  in  our 
behalf?    Oh  !  would  not  the  reason  that  is  left  tell  us  it  must 
be  all  in  vain— that  our  envoy,  partaking  of  the  common  guilt, 
would  himself  stand  in  need  of  a  mediator— that,  partaking  of 
but  one  nature,  he  could  have  no  access  to  God,  and  must''  be 
consumed  by  his  holy  presence  1 

In  the  proper  divinity  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  then,  is 
fallen  man's  only  hope.     His  mediatorial  qualifications  would 
be  incomplete  without  it.     There  being  nothing  in  his  nature 
common  to  both  parties,  he  could  only  be  a  mediator  of  one, 
and  could   not  meet  the  requirements  of  the  nature  he  did 
not  possess. 
^  How  far  it  is  competent  for  Almighty  God  to  make  the  me- 
diation of  a  created  being  available  to  the  redemption  and  salva- 
tion of  sinners,  is  a  question  which  will  never  be  entertained  by 
any  sane  mind,  because  it  is  one  which  never  can  be  resolved. 
Nothing,  it  appears  to  me,  short  of  the  full  qualification  for  this 


164 


THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST. 


ofEce,  which  consists  in  possessing  the  nature  belonging  to  each 
of  the  parties,  can  present  any  reasonable  ground  of  confidence 
to  sinners  in  the  awful  anticipations  of  death  and  judgment,  and 
reheve  mankind  from  the  deplorable  dilemma  of  being  without 
any  revelation  of  the  will  of  God,  or  with  one  so  uncertain  as  to 
be  utterly  unworthy  of  the  name,  and  unable  to  make  }jls  wise 
unto  salvation.  For  to  this  result  all  speculations  which  trench 
upon  the  divinity  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus  inevitably  lead ;  and 
it  is  my  duty,  my  brethren,  not  only  to  warn  you  against  them, 
but  to  give  you  plain  grounds  on  which  to  resist  the  sophistry 
wherewith  they  are  inculcated,  among  which  I  know  of  none, 
not  drawn  from  the  express  words  of  Scripture,  plainer  or 
stronger  than  that  which  is  found  in  a  just  view  of  his  mediato- 
rial office. 

Secondly,  as  the  Son  of  Man,  (so  called  from  having  taken 
the  human  nature  into  union  with  the  divine  in  his  own  person,) 
he  was  competent  to  represent  all  mankind,  and,  as  such,  to 
undertake  to  do  and  to  suffer  whatever  v/as  required  by  the  per- 
fections of  Deity  in  order  to  reconcile  the  world  to  himself, 
and  usher  in  a  dispensation  of  mercy  and  grace  to  men. 

This,  my  brethren,  completes  the  mediatorial  character  of 
our  Lord,  and  presents  him  to  our  view  as  every  way  suited  to 
our  case. 

Whatever  the  honour  and  dignity  of  the  divine  government 
required  to  be  inflicted  upon  the  transgressor  of  God's  holy  law 
was  met  by  a  representative  both  able  and  willing  to  bear  the 
stroke  of  vindictive  justice,  and  make  that  full  satisfaction  which 
alone  could  usher  in  the  exercise  of  mercy. 

Whatever  the  holiness  of  the  divine  law  demanded  of  perfect 
obedience  to  its  precepts,  in  all  the  length,  and  breadth,  and 
height,  and  depth  of  its  spiritual  as  well  as  literal  extent,  could 
be  paid,  and  its  just  claims  discharged,  in  the  very  nature  which 
transgressed. 

Whatever  of  example  was  needed  to  encourage  redeemed 
man  to  rise  from  the  death  of  sin  and  strive  for  the  attainment  of 
holiness,  was  given  in  the  life  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus. 

And  whatever  can  invigorate  faith  and  hope  with  prospects 
beyond  the  grave,  is  certified  and  assured  by  the  resurrection 


THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST.  165 

and  ascension  of  Jesus   Christ  into  heaven,  there,  in  both 
natures,  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  Gofffor  us. 

Now,  my  dear  hearers,  let  us  ask  ourselves,  and  with  that 
seriousness  which  an  immortal  interest  should  produce,  what  is 
there  lacking  in  the  qualities  of  the  mediator  provided  for  us  by 
God  1  Is  there  any  thing  that  you  would  wish  added,  altered, 
or  taken  away  1  Is  there  a  single  provision  in  his  mediatorial 
character  for  which  there  is  not  a  corresponding  want  in  the 
condition  of  man  1  Is  this  poor  delineation  of  it  founded  on 
and  in  agreement  with  the  word  of  God  1  And  have  you 
better  authority  for  his  nature,  his  office,  and  the  connexion  of 
both  with  your  actual  condition  1  Oh !  what  unspeakable  interests 
are  connected  with  right  views  and  a  right  practice  of  and  under 
this  provision  of  heaven's  wisdom,  mercy,  and  love.  May  a 
gracious  God  keep  and  defend  you  from  the  contagion  of  that 
pride  which  rises  against  the  humbling  truth,  that  man  in  himself 
is  nothing — that  his  salvation  is  of  grace,  and  all  his  sufficiency 
of  God,  by  and  through  a  divine  mediator. 

III.  Thirdly,  I  am  to  consider  and  point  out  our  duty  and 
privileges,  under  this  provision  of  the  love  of  God  our  Saviour. 

An  obligation  conferred  implies  a  duty  to  be  performed  ;  if 
not  in  kind — which  maybe  impossible — yet  in  the  sentiment  enter- 
tained of  the  favour  bestowed.  This  is  true  of  the  common 
concerns  of  life,  and  must  be  proportionally  more  obligatory  in 
the  higher  interests  of  eternity.  The  redeemed  state  of  man- 
kind, therefore,  declared  and  authenticated  by  the  gospel,  as  it 
is  the  highest  favour  that  could  be  conferred,  involves  the  strongest 
possible  obligation  to  embrace  and  improve  it.  To  those,  there- 
fore, who  are  called  to  the  knowledge  of  this  grace,  the  duty  of 
applying  themselves  to  whatever  can  further  and  forward  the 
ultimate  object  of  eternal  salvation,  must  be  the  first  and  highest 
obligation  they  feel  themselves  under.  And  did  men  only  give 
a  reasonable  portion  of  attention  and  serious  consideration  to 
their  condition  as  accountable  beings,  as  immortal  beings,  as 
redeemed  beings,  they  could  not  fail  to  be  more  deeply  impressed 
with  what  they  owe  to  God  and  their  own  souls,  and  more 
earnestly  engaged  in  seeking  the  pearl  of  great  price.  They 
would  apprehend  better  what  religion  really  is,  they  would  under- 


166  THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST. 

Stand  more  clearly  the  part  they  have  to  perform  in  working  out 
their  eternal  salvation,  and  be  induced  more  heartily  to  engage 
in  it.     For  surely  where  every  obstacle  is  removed,  all  needful 
help  promised,  and  the  highest  reward  offered,  the  deepest  sense 
of  gratitude  and  love  should  fill  the  hearts,  and  the  most  earnest 
engagement  rule  the  lives  of  all  under  the  gospel.    My  brethren 
and  hearers,  we  are  redeemed  that  we  may  be  saved  ;  the  means 
of  grace  are  provided  that  they  may  be  used ;  a  mediator  is 
appointed  to  stand  between  the  holiness  of  God  and  our  unwor- 
thiness  ;  salvation  is  Hmited  on  faith  in  his  name  ;  his  qualifica- 
tions are  every  way  suitable  ;  and  the  gospel  is  the  proclamation 
of  these  facts  for  our  information  and  assurance.     Our  duty, 
therefore,  is  to  believe  the  gospel,  to  follow  the  direction  and 
example  there  given  us,  by  personal  endeavour  to  bring  ourselves 
within  reach  of  its   promised  grace  and  saving  mercy,  and  by 
exertion  and  perseverance  to  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of 
our  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.     Nothing  else  can 
prove  that  we  have  any  just  sense  of  what  God  hath  done  for 
us,  any  fear  or  reverence  of  his  glorious  name,  any  desire  to  be 
saved.     For  so  long  as  we  slight  the  invitations  of  the  gospel, 
and  on  any  pretence   hold  ourselves  back  from  the  duties  it 
enjoins,  we  do,  in  fact,  persist  in  rebellion  against  God,   reject 
the  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  if  we  continue  thus  must 
perish  for  ever. 

What  is  thus  so  clearly  our  duty  is  also  our  privilege,  my 
brethren  and  hearers. 

For  as  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to  himself, 
and  as  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  grace  of  God,  tasted  death  for 
every  man,  it  is  the  privilege,  the  heaven-granted,  blood-pur- 
chased privilege  of  every  child  of  Adam,  to  come  unto  God  by 
him ;  to  return  to  his  Father's  house  ;  to  receive  the  welcome 
of  a  pardoned  penitent,  and  to  be  clothed  with  the  best  robe, 
even  the  unspotted  righteousness  of  Christ.  It  is  the  high 
privilege,  I  say,  of  all  who  hear  the  joyful  sound  of  the  gospel, 
on  the  simple  faith  of  the  message  itself,  to  draw  near  to  God 
through  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the  warrant  to  believe,  that  God 
hath  not  appointed  us  to  wrath,  but  to  obtain  salvation  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.     What  saith  the  Father  in  this  mes- 


THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST.  167 

sage  of  love  and  mercy  to  man  1  This  is  imj  beloved  Son,  hear  ye 
him — and  what  saith  that  beloved  Son  ?  Come  unto  me  all  ye 
that  are  weary  and  heavy  laden  and  I  ivill  give  you  rest  ;  learn  of 
me.  And  what  saith  the  Spirit  of  truth  to  the  Churches  of 
this  beloved  Son  1  He  is  able  to  save,  to  the  uttermost,  all  icho 
come  unto  God  by  him.  It  is  your  high  privilege,  then,  my  dear 
hearers,  forthwith  to  cast  your  idols  (the  vanities  of  the  world 
and  the  lusts  of  the  flesh)  to  the  moles  and  to  the  bats  ;  to  lay 
down  the  weapons  of  your  rebellion,  and  return  to  him  who 
hath  made  and  redeemed  you  ;  to  enter  the  school  of  Christ, 
and  there  be  made  wise  unto  salvation.  Ml  things  are  ready, 
come  ye  to  the  marriage.  And  what  hinders  ?  Who  can  stand 
up  and  show  cause  why  this  gracious  invitation  should  not  be 
accepted  ?  Alas  !  alas !  that  immortal  souls,  that  reasonable 
creatures,  should  prefer  darkness  to  light,  and  choose  death  in 
the  face  of  eternal  life.  Yet  so  it  is — the  gospel  is  a  savour  of 
death  as  well  as  a  savour  of  life,  but  not  by  God's  appointment. 
Eternal  death  is  the  wages  of  unbelief,  the  end  of  those  who  will 
not  receive  the  love  of  truth,  that  they  might  be  saved,  who  will 
not  believe  that  message  of  mercy  which  God  hath  spoken  unto 
us  by  his  Son. 

But  it  is  more  particularly,  my  brethren,  the  privilege  of  the 
believer,  through  this  one  mediator  to  approach  God  in  acts  of 
private  and  public  worship,  especially  in  prayer.  This  is  the 
foundation  on  which,  in  the  chapter  from  which  my  text  is  taken, 
St.  Paul  rests  the  obligation  and  the  efficacy  of  the  worship  of 
God.  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  says  he,  in  the  chapter  before 
this,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into 
the  toorld  to  save  sinners.  I  exhort,  therefore,  that  first  of  all  sup- 
plications, prayers,  and  intercessions,  and  giving  of  thanks,  be 
made  for  all  men  ;  for  this  is  good  and  acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God 
our  Saviour,  who  loill  have  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  unto 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  For  there  is  one  God  and  one  mediator 
between  God  and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  who  gave  himself 
a  ransom  for  all.  I  will,  therefore,  that  men  pray  every  where,  lift- 
ing up  holy  hands,  without  wrath  and  doubting. 

Hence,  it  would  appear,  my  brethren,  that  in  the  judgment  of 
St.  Paul,  the  only  reasonable  ground  of  religious  duty  or  reli- 


168  THE    MEDIATORIAL    OFFICE    OF    CHRIST. 

gious  hope  in  man,  is  found  in  the  mediation  of  the  man  Christ 
Jesus  ;    and  that  this   mode  of  access  to  the  Father  being 
provided  for  us,   it  becomes  not  only  the  duty  but  the  privilege 
of  believers  to  draw  near  to  God  in  supplications  for  themselves 
and  others.     More  particularly  does  it  appear,  that  this  is  the 
privilege  of  public  worship,  of  joint  or  common  prayer  ;  and  the 
reason,   I  think,  is  obvious.     Whatever  we  do  is  coupled  with 
imperfection,  the  holiest  of  our  duties  need  the  intercession  of  a 
mediator,  holy,  harmless,  and  undefiled,  to  render  them  accept- 
able to  a  pure  and  holy  God.     Without  a  mediator,  therefore, 
faith  is  vain,  prayer  useless,  and  hope  a  delusion  ;  but  with  an 
intercessor    possessing   the   qualifications   of  our  great    High 
Priest,   a  new  and  living  way  is  opened  for  us  to  a  throne  of 
grace.     Let  us,  therefore,   my  brethren,   draw  near  with  true 
hearts,  in  full  assurance  of  faith,  that  he  who  spared  not  his  own 
Son  but  freely  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  will,  with  him,  also 
freely  give  us  all  things.     That  we  are  thus  furnished  is  an 
argument  to  warm  the  coldest  heart,  to  encourage  the  most  timid 
spirit.     That  we  are  thus  provided,  is  a  warning  that  we  come 
not  before  God  otherwise  than  he  hath  appointed.     Wo  unto 
that  man  who,    in  the  fond  conceit  of   his  own   worthiness, 
looks  to  God  through  himself,  rejects  the  one  only  mediator 
between  God  and  man,  or  adds  others  to  His  infinite  sufficiency. 
God  out  of  Christ  is  a  consuming  fire.     Christ  rejected  is 
an  accusing  witness,  a  condemning  judge.  Christ  dishonoured 
is  double  perdition.     Let  us,  therefore,  my  brethren,  have  grace, 
whereby  we  may  serve  God  acceptably,  with  reverence  and  godly 
fear. 

Let  us  hold  fast  the  profession  of  our  faith  without  wavering, 
that  when  faith  shall  end  in  sight,  and  the  man  Christ  Jesus 
come  in  the  glory  of  his  Father  with  the  holy  angels,  we  may 
be  accounted  worthy  to  enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  city, 
and  to  join  with  all  the  company  of  heaven  in  ascribing  glory^ 
honour,  and  salvation,  to  him  who  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from 
our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto 
God  even  his  Father,  world  without  end. 


SERMON  XV. 


CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW. 


Romans  x.  4. 
"  For  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  believeth." 

As  the  accountability  of  moral  agents  is  to  be  inferred  from 
their  nature,  as  obedience  required  implies  a  law  given  by  which 
it  is  to  be  tested,  and.  as  a  judgment  expected  necessarily 
involves  acquittal  or  condemnation,  the  process  by  which  we 
arrive  at  our  real  condition  as  amenable  to  him  who  hath  made 
us,  is  within  the  reach  of  every  rational  being,  independently  of 
what  we  are  in  the  habit  of  considering  as  revelation.  Upon 
this  ground,  the  apostle's  argument  in  the  first  part  of  this 
epistle  respecting  the  Gentile  world,  seems  to  be  constructed 
where  he  infers  their  capacity  to  know  God  from  the  considera- 
tion of  his  works,  and  their  obligation  to  worship  and  serve  him 
according  to  the  law  written  in  their  hearts  ;  and  so  far  there  is 
not  a  dissenting  voice  in  the  world  of  his  creatures,  whether 
Pagan  or  Christian, 

But  the  nature  of  that  accountability,  my  hearers,  the  extent 
and  quality  of  that  obedience,  and  the  consequences  of  that 
judgment,  can  never  be  satisfactorily  ascertained  by  this  general 
principle.  For  however  undeniable  in  its  truth,  universal  in  its 
acknowledgment,  and  infinite  in  its  application  and  use,  yet, 
nevertheless,  it  sheds  but  a  faint  and  obscure  light  upon  the  ten 
thousand  anxieties  which  occupy  the  heart  awake  and  alive  to 
the  unspeakable  interests  of  eternity. 

Hence  not  only  the  absolute  necessity,  but  the  infinite  and 
priceless  value  of  the  revelation  we  are  favoured  with  in  the 
Scriptures  of  our  faith,  which  is  truly  a  light  shining  in  a  dark 
place,  and  the  only  light  which  can  afford  us  a  gleam  of  hope  or 
a  ray  of  comfort  in  the  deep,  and  solemn,  and  overwhelming 
inquiry — wherewithal  shall  I  appear  before  the  Lord  1  what  shall 

Vol.  II.— 22 


170 


CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW, 


/  do  to  he  saved  ?  To  this  there  is  but  one  answer,  my  friends', 
and  as  we  are  able  with  a  good  conscience  to  apply  it  to 
ourselves,  will  it  be  well  or  ill  with  us  for  ever.  Believe  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved,  is  the  short  but 
comprehensive  reply  of  God's  most  true  and  faithful  word  to  the 
convinced  and  penitent  sinner ;  as  it,  also,  is  the  clear  and 
express  declaration  of  the  same  unchangeable  word,  that  there 
is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men  tohereby  we  must 
be  saved,  only  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Jfazareth.  And 
hence  the  deep  importance  to  each  one  of  us  personally,  to 
examine  and  ascertain  whether  we  are  believers,  in  the  Scripture 
sense  of  the  word  ;  because  on  this  one  point  depends  whether 
we  have  the  slightest  interest  in  the  mercy  revealed  in  the 
gospel.  And  so  indisputably  certain  is  this  truth,  that  if  every 
other  point  in  the  obedience  of  faith  were  fulfilled  by  us  under 
the  gospel,  this  foundation  and  corner  stone  of  all  being  want- 
ing, the  rest  would  profit  us  nothing.  This  I  purpose,  with 
God's  good  help,  to  demonstrate  to  you  from  the  words  of  my 
text,  applying  them  as  St.  Paul  did,  to  shake,  and  I  pray  God  it 
may  be  granted  me,  to  pull  down  the  unfounded  confidence  of 
too  many  in  these  days,  who  like  those  of  whom  the  apostle 
speaks  in  this  chapter,  but  not  with  the  same  excuse,  going 
about  to  establish  their  own  righteousness,  have  not  submitted  them- 
selves to  the  righteousness  of  God. 

In  discoursing  on  this  subject,  I  shall,  in  the 

First  place,  consider  in  what  sense  we  are  to  take  the  word 
law,  as  here  used  by  the  apostle. 

Secondly,  what  is  the  extent  and  nature  of  that  claim  which 
the  law  of  God  has  upon  us. 

Thirdly,   the  means  by  which   alone   that  claim  can  be 
satisfied. 

Fourthly,  what  is  meant  by  Christ's  being  the  end  of 
the  law. 

Lastly,  I  shall  apply  the  subject. 

For  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every 
one  that  believeth. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  consider  in  what  sense  we  are  to  take  the 
word  law,  9s  here  used  by  the  apostle. 


CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW.  171 

1  believe  I  am  not  mistaken  when  I  take  for  granted  that  to 
the  generality  of  Christians  there  is  considerable  difficulty  and 
no  small  confusion  of  mind  on  the  subject,  occasioned  princi- 
pally by  want  of  attention  to  the  various  meanings  in  which  the 
word  law  is  used  by  this  and  the  other  apostles  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament— and  that  this  difficulty  is  increased  by  the  plausible  man- 
ner in  which  the  word,  and  those  passages  of  Scripture  in  which 
it  is  found,  have  been  pressed  into  the  service  and  support  of 
different  systems  of  divinity ;  an  evil  which  is  now  perhaps 
without  remedy,  however  evident  it  may  be  that  the  particular 
system  is  constructed  on  such  a  sense  and  meaning  given  to  a 
particular  word,  such  as  law,  faith,  elect,  &c.,  as  is  not  consistent 
with  the  general  tenour  of  the  word  of  God  taken  as  a  whole  ; 
under  which  impression  the  Scriptures  are  read  with  a  bias  and 
prejudice  upon  the  mind,  in  favour  of  that  interpretation  which 
best  accords  with  the  system  of  doctrine  we  may  have  adopted. 
And  wonderful  it  is  to  reflect  with  what  readiness,  remote  and 
even  irrelevant  passages  of  Scripture  seem  to  come  together  in 
our  minds,  to  support  and  confirm  our  previous  impressions  ; 
and  how  those  which  militate  against  us,  and  conflict  with  our 
favourite  notions,  fall  powerless  on  our  pre-occupied  under- 
standings. 

On  which,  I  will  only  observe — that  while  each  must  make 
the  application  for  himself,  all  should  be  on  their  guard  against 
that  dangerous  influence  which  risks  a  soul  for  the  sake  of  a 
system. 

By  the  word  law  we  understand,  in  general,  a  rule  of  con- 
duct enforced  by  a  penalty.  And  the  divine  law,  which  is  our  pre- 
sent subject,  differs  in  nothing  from  human  law  except  in  the 
supreme  nature  of  its  authority  and  of  the  sanctions  by  which 
it  is  enforced.  This  will  be  evident,  if  we  consider  that  the 
same  principles  are  common  to  both.  Neither  affects  those  who 
are  subject  to  it  unless  it  be  disobeyed.  What  effect  has  the 
law  of  the  land  against  gaming,  for  instance,  upon  the  man 
who  never  plays,  or  the  law  of  God  against  theft,  upon  the  man 
who  does  not  steal  1  The  penalty  sleeps  in  both  cases — and 
in  this  sense  it  is  that  St.  Paul  says,  the  law  is  not  made  for  a 
righteous  man,  but  for  the  lawless  and  disobedient.     In  like  man- 


172 


CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW. 


ner  when  either  of  them  is  disobeyed,  that  moment  guilt  is  in- 
curred, which  never  can  be  removed  and  the  law  satisfied,  unless 
by  the  infliction  of  the  penalty  on  the  offender.  From  the  very 
nature  of  law  it  can  know  nothing  of  mercy  ;  that,  if  to  be 
had  at  all,  must  be  sought  for  elsewhere.  Moreover,  neither 
divine  nor  human  laws  propose  any  reward  for  the  performance 
of  duty.  Protection  and  safety  in  the  state  we  are  in  is  all  that 
law,  considered  in  itself,  proposes  or  confers  on  the  obedient. 
This  our  own  experience  shows  to  be  the  case  in  the  operation 
of  human  laws  ;  and  revelation  teaches  us  that  it  was  thus  with 
Adam  under  the  original  law  of  Gpn  ;  for  we  read  of  nothing 
like  reward  or  an  addition  to  the  state  he  was  in  promised  to  his 
obedience  by  the  terms  of  the  law.  But  while  they  thus  agree 
in  those  principles  which  are  common  to  law,  as  such,  they  differ 
in  one  respect.  Human  laws  may  and  must  be  altered,  amended, 
and  repealed,  according  to  the  change  of  times  and  circum- 
stances ;  but  God's  Holy  Law  being  a  transcript  of  his  own 
perfections,  is  everlasting  and  unchangeable.  These  observa- 
tions are  necessary  to  be  borne  in  mind,  my  brethren,  if  we 
would  come  to  a  safe  and  practical  understanding  of  the  subject 
before  us. 

It  is  plain,  from  the  context,  that  the  apostle,  speaking  in  this 
chapter  of  the  Jews,  uses  the  word  law  as  referring  to  the  law 
given  by  Moses — but  it  would  be  to  defeat  the  whole  purpose  of 
this  epistle,  indeed  of  the  New  Testament  revelation,  were  we  to 
confine  it  to  the  Jews.  Christ  was  indeed  the  end  or  object  of 
that  dispensation  of  the  supreme  original  law  of  God  ;  to  him 
all  its  enactments  pointed.  And  it  is  expressly  said  that  it  was 
added  becatise  of  transgression,  until  the  seed  should  come  to  whom 
the  promise  was  made.  But  my  text  says,  that  Christ  is  the 
end  of  the  laio  to  every  one  that  believeth.  Of  course  not  to  the 
Jew  only,  but  also  to  the  Gentile. 

Therefore,  the  word  law  must  here  be  understood  as  applying 
to  that  original  universal  law  of  God,  under  the  obligations  of 
which  all  rational  natures,  whether  angels  or  men,  are  held. 
And  here  opens  upon  us,  my  brethren,  a  wide  and  extensive 
range  of  investigation,  in  which  all  our  care  and  caution  must 
be  put  forth,  lest  we  wander  from  the  testimony  into  some  flowery 


CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW.  173 

but  unfruitful  field  of  speculation,  while  we  lose  sight  of  the 
simple  truth  as  it  is  in  Jf.sus.     Let  us,  then,  in  the 

II.  Second  place,  inquire  into  the  extent  and  nature  of  that 
claim  which  the  law  of  God  has  upon  us. 

And  here  some  one,  I  doubt  not,  is  ready  to  say,  if  it  is  the 
law  of  God  there  can  be  no  limit  to  the  extent  of  its  claims  upon 
us,  but  the  full  obedience  it  requires.  True,  my  hearers,  and 
would  to  God  we  were  all  more  under  the  influence  of  this 
solemn  truth  than  we  are.  But  as  the  Antinomian  will  tell  you 
that  he  is  freed  from  the  law,  that  being  dead  in  which  he  was 
held  ;  as  the  Solitidian  will  wrest  the  Scriptures  in  support  of  a 
banner  of  faith  ;  as  the  self-righteous  moralist  will  sneer  at  faith, 
that  he  may  establish  his  own  righteousness  ;  and  as  the  great 
crowd  of  thoughtless  sinners  forget  that  there  is  a  God  to  serve, 
a  law  to  keep,  and  a  judgment  to  meet,  therefore  it  may  not  be 
unprofitable  to  consider  in  its  particulars,  what  has  so  direct  a 
bearing  u()on  the  edification  to  be  drawn  from  my  text.  For 
Christ  is  only  valued  as  we  see  and  feel  our  need  of  him. 

That  God  placed  man,  at  his  creation,  under  the  law,  as  a 
covenant  of  life — that  he  broke  it,  and  thereby  incurred  for  him- 
self and  all  his  posterity,  not  only  the  loss  of  present  blessings, 
but  the  penalty  of  death,  with  all  the  other  miseries  which  the 
curse  inflicted,  we  know  and  feel,  my  brethren,  by  the  preva- 
lence of  sin  and  death  in  this  poor  world  ;  and  it  is  surely  of  the 
first  importance  to  ascertain  whether  and  to  what  extent  we  are 
bound  by  this  law,  and  by  what  means  we  may  be  able  to  fulfil 
its  conditions  and  escape  its  penalties. 

The  question  then  is — is  this  law  in  force  under  the  gospel  1 
To  which  I  answer,  that  we  read  of  no  repeal — that,  from  the 
nature  of  God,  no  such  repeal  could  take  place  ;  and  to  the 
objection  that  the  law  of  faith  revealed  in  the  gospel  made  void 
or  rendered  useless  the  original  law  of  God,  St.  Paul  replies, 
that  it  did  the  very  reverse,  for  that  it  established  the  law.  And 
from  the  words  of  my  text  this  conclusion  is  strengthened ;  for  if 
Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  to  believers,  so  long  as  there  are 
believers  there  must  be  that  law  to  them  of  which  he  is  the  end. 

How  then,  it  may  be  asked,  are  we  to  understand  and  recon- 
cile the  many  passages  of  Scripture  which  sound  as  if  the  law  was 


174  CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW. 

superseded  by  the  gospel  1  To  this  I  answer,  that  in  such  places 
either  the  law  ceremonial  is  meant,  which  was  clearly  annulled 
by  the  coming  of  Christ,  all  its  shadows  being  found  in  him  as 
the  substance  ;  or  the  law  itself,  not  as  a  law,  but  as  a  condi- 
tion of  justification  and  title  to  eternal  life  by  the  righteousness 
thereof.  As  the  supreme  law  of  God,  partaking  of  his  holy 
nature  and  binding  heaven  and  earth,  it  is  unchangeable,  and 
holy,  and  just,  and  good  ;  and  not  one  jot  or  one  tittle,  says  our 
Lord,  shall  pass  from  the  law  till  all  be  fulfilled.  But  as  a  ground 
or  condition  of  justification,  which  can  only  be  by  its  perfect  ful- 
filment, it  has  become  impossible  to  fallen  creatures  ;  for  to  Such 
by  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of  sin,  and  not  the  means  of  salvation. 
W  herefore,  St.  Paul  argues,  that  verily,  if  there  could  have  been 
a  law  given  which  could  have  given  life,  then  should  righteousness 
have  been  by  the  law. 

But,  if  unrepealed,  it  must  yet  be  in  force  as  a  rule  of  life  to 
us  in  its  full  extent ;  and  this,  my  brethren,  is  our  actual  con- 
dition, and  the  very  doctrine,  and  the  only  doctrine,  which 
gives  to  the  dispensation  of  the  gospel  its  gracious  and  merciful 
character ;  to  the  gift  of  Jesus  Christ  its  infinite  preciousness  ; 
and  to  the  love  of  God  in  the  redemption  of  fallen  man,  that 
unsearchable  quality  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  which,  while 
the  purity  and  dignity  of  his  holy  law  was  magnified,  and  his 
original  purpose  in  creating  man  for  his  glory  maintained  against 
sin,  death,  and  hell,  could  thus  cause  mercy  and  truth  to  meet 
together,  and  the  glorious  perfections  of  the  Creator  to  harmo- 
nize with  the  imperfections  of  the  creature. 

To  suppose,  as  some  do,  from  insulated  passages  of  Scripture, 
and  from  the  impossibility  that  fallen  sinful  creatures  should 
fulfil  its  exact  and  holy  requirements,  that  therefore  it  is  a  dead 
letter,  is  to  deceive  our  own  souls  fatally,  and  to  upturn  the 
very  foundations  of  Christianity.  For  the  grace  of  the  gospel 
is  constructed  only  on  the  claims  of  the  law  and  our  inability 
to  discharge  them.  On  the  other  hand,  to  assert  the  claims  of 
the  law  to  the  perfect  obedience  it  demands,  and  supply  the 
notorious  defects  in  our  duty  by  an  arbitrary  imputation  of 
what  another  hath  done  in  this  respect  to  certain  persons  con- 
sidered as  elect,  is  to  wrest  the  Scriptures  to  our  awn  destruc- 


CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW.  175 

tion,  and  open  a  wide  dour  for  confusion  and  evenj  evil  work  to 
enter  in.  No,  my  brethren,  to  us  it  is  yet  said  by  this  holy  law, 
Thou  shah  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all 
thy  soul,  and  tvith  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself.  This  royal  law  the  gospel  enforces  by  all 
the  sanctions  which  time  and  eternity  can  comprehend,  and  all 
the  authority  which  love  manifested  by  example  and  benefits 
conferred  on  the  undeserving,  can  give  to  the  precept  of  the 
Sovereign  Lawgiver. 

_  But  while  the  law  of  God  is  thus  unimpaired  in  the  extent  of 
Its  righteous  claims  upon  us  in  the  nature  and  kind  of  the  obe- 
dience required,  it  is  modified  and  mitigated  by  the  equity  and 
mercy  of  the  lawgiver  proclaimed  in  the  gospel. 

To  man  in  his  integrity,  that  is,  before  his  fall,  the  law  pre 
sented  itself  in  its  rightful  claim  of  perfect,  unceasing,  unsinnino- 
obedience  ;  and  it  found  him  furnished  by  his  wise  and  merciful 
Creator  to  discharge  all  its  pure,  holy,  and  life-giving  demands- 
no  law  in  his  members  warring  against  the  law  of  his  mind,  and 
bringing  him  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  and  death— no  cor- 
ruption  of  his  mind  leading  him  oflf  from  God,  his  chief  good 
after  the  vain  delights  of  a  perishing  world. 

But  when  sin  obtained  the  mastery  over  him,  banished  the 
Holy  Spirit  from  his  soul,  and  perverted  and  depraved  the 
pure  and  perfect  faculties  bestowed  on  him  by  his  Maker  then 
could  this  pure  and  holy  law  no  longer  be  to  him  a  covenant  of 
life  and  peace,  but  an  everlasting  bond  of  fear,  and  wrath,  and 
death. 

What,  then,  was  to  be  done  1  Was  the  law  of  heaven  to  yield 
and  surrender  to  the  law  of  sin,  and  the  gracious  purpose  of 
God  in  the  creation  of  man  as  an  instrument  of  his  glory  to  be 
defeated  by  the  craft  and  malice  of  the  devil  1   Yet  this  must 
have  followed  but  for  the  resources  of  that  infinite  wisdom 
mercy,  and  love  which  had  provided  in  the  eternal  counsel  of 
he  adorable  Three  in  Deity  against  this  foreseen  event.     Here 
then  my  friends,  rises  to  our  astonished  and  admiring  view  thai 
wonderful  appointment  in  which  we  once  more  stand  for  life  or 
death,  by  the  gift  of  Jesus  Christ  to  take  our  nature  upon 
him,  and  in  the  nature  that  sinned  to  bear  the  curse  and  satify 


176  CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW. 

the  justice  of  the  broken  law — to  fulfil  its  utmost  demands  upon 
human  nature,  and,  by  so  doing,  to  purchase  for  the  sinner  a 
reprieve  from  the  sentence  of  eternal  death,  a  renewal  of  spiritual 
life,  and  a  day  of  grace,  in  which,  upon  the  merciful  and  possi- 
ble conditions  of  the  gospel,  to  regain  the  heaven  he  had  lost. — 
Oh  !  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of 
God  ;  how  unsearchable  are  his  judgments,  and  his  ways  past  find- 
ing out. 

Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  mediator  of  this  new  cove- 
nant, now  proclaims  to  a  lost  world  that,  whosoever  believing  in 
him  as  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God  and  promised  Saviour  of 
sinners,  shall  heartily  and  truly  repent  him  of  his  former  sins, 
and  for  the  time  to  come  endeavour  with  all  his  might  to  obey 
sincerely  though  not  without  failures  and  infirmities  all  the  com- 
mandments of  God,  shall,  through  the  merits  of  his  sufferings 
and  death,  have  his  sincerity  accepted  instead  of  perfect  obedi- 
ence. This  is  the  condition  of  the  gospel  covenant,  the  grace 
and  faith  which  came  by  Jesus  Christ,  the  reasonable  service 
of  reasonable  and  redeemed  creatures.  This  is  that  righteous- 
ness of  faith  so  highly  spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures,  and  it  is  so 
called,  because  faith  in  what  God  hath  spoken  unto  us  by  his 
Son,  is  the  rpot  or  spring  of  that  turning  to  God  or  conversion 
from  sin  to  which  the  gospel  invites  ixs  and  which  it  requires, 
not  only  as  the  condition  of  our  acceptance,  but  as  the  only 
evidence  that  we  really  do  believe.  This  is  that  righteousness 
of  God  nithout  the  law,  which  is  hy  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  unto 
all  and  upon  all  them  that  believe,  because  it  is  of  his  appoint- 
ment, and  what  alone  he  will  accept  at  the  sinner's  hands  for 
justification  of  life.  And  thus  argues  the  apostle,  Abraham  be- 
lieved God,  and  it  was  counted  to  him  for  righteousness,  and  not  to 
him  only,  but  to  us  also  it  shall  be  counted,  or  allowed,  if  we 
believe  on  Him  who  raised  up  Jesus  our  Lord /rom  the  dead,  who 
teas  delivered  for  our  offences  and  raised  again  for  our  justification. 

III.  Thirdly,  I  am  to  consider  by  what  means  the  claims  of 
the  law  upon  us  are  to  be  satisfied. 

Now,  these,  by  the  wise  and  merciful  appointment  of  God, 
can  no  otherwise  be  answered  than  by  faith  in  Christ.  What 
shall  we  do  that  we  might  work  the  works  of  God  1  was  the  ques- 


CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW.  177 

tion  put  by  the  Jews  to  our  Lord,  in  the  days  of  his  flesh.  This 
is  l/ie  work  o/God  tliat  ye  believe  in  him  ivhom  he  hath  sent,  was 
the  answer  of  the  living  word  which  came  down  from  heaven. 
And  this  short  reply,  my  brethren,  contains  all  that  we  need 
either  know  or  practice  to  secure  the  salvation  of  our  souls,  as 
will  appear  by  considering  that  we  are  debtors  to  the  law  in  two 
accounts ;  first,  for  the  penalty  due  to  our  disobedience,  and 
secondly,  for  the  renewed  obedience  we  owe  to  it. 

Coming  into  the  world  as  sinners,  and  liable  to  the  curse  of 
the  broken  law,  we  continue  such  until  by  some  act  on  our  part 
we  resort  to  the  remedy  provided  for  us.  And  here  let  those 
who  think  lightly  of  or  reject  infant  baptism,  consider  the  bear- 
ing it  has  upon  this  appointment  of  Christ  as  the  end  of  the  law 
for  righteousness  both  to  believing  parents  and  their  children, 
its  efficacy  on  original  or  birth  sin,  and  its  purpose  of  bringing 
into  a  state  of  covenant  relation  with  God  those  who  have  no 
claim  upon  him  but  what  springs  from  their  relation  to  Christ. 
Let  them  consider  this,  and  be  no  longer  led  away  after  inven- 
tions of  men  to  debar  their  infants  from  the  mighty  benefits 
conferred  on  them  in  this  ordinance. 

But  being  actual  sinners  also  in  our  own  persons,  the  law 
calls  for  our  blood,  for  ivithout  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no 
remission,  and  from  this  claim  the  blood  of  Christ  is  our  only 
refuge,  for  God  made  him  who  kneio  no  sin  to  be  sin  for  us,  that  we 
might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him.  But  this  blood  can 
be  obtained  or  made  over  to  us  no  otherwise  than  by  believing  in 
him  as  the  Lamb  of  God  lohich  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world. 
By  faith ^nly  can  we  be  united  to  Christ.  By  our  union  with 
him  only,  and  as  found  in  him,  can  the  satisfaction  he  hath 
made  to  the  law  be  counted  or  made  over  to  us,  and  we  stand 
justified  or  acquitted  from  the  claims  it  has  upon  us  for  the 
penalty  due  to  our  sins.  And  O  that  poor  thoughtless  sinners 
would  consider  that  there  is  but  this  one  way  under  heaven  to 
pay  their  debt,  and  that  the  faith  which  justifies,  to  give  either 
comfort  or  assurance,  must  be  as  much  the  subject  of  con- 
sciousness as  the  sin  which  demands  an  atonement  before  it 
can  be  given. 

Secondly,  we  are  debtors  to  the  law  under  gospel  grace  for 

Vol.  IL— 23 


178  CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW. 

renewed  obedience.  And  this  claim  can  only  be  satisfied  in  the 
renewal  of  our  minds  by  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
In  him  as  our  living  head  all  fulness  dwells,  and  from  him  de- 
scend those  streams  of  spiritual  strength  and  nourishment  which 
give  health  and  increase  to  his  body,  the  Church,  and  to  every 
member  of  it.  Without  him  we  can  do  nothing.  By  his  Spirit 
we  are  born  again,  by  his  grace  we  are  strengthened,  by  his 
wisdom  we  are  enlightened,  by  his  providence  we  are  defended 
and  disposed  of,  and  by  his  intercession  our  sincere  though  im- 
perfect services  find  acceptance  and  reward.  Thus  we  can  do 
all  things  through  Christ  which  strengtheneth  us,  and  thus,  from 
first  to  last,  is  salvation  by  grace  through  faith,  not  of  works,  lest 
any  man  should  boast ;  and  thus  are  sinners  provided  by  the  love 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  to  regain  the  glory  lost  by  sin,  but 
which  shall  again  be  revealed  in  them  that  believe.  O  that 
the  thousands  to  whom  it  is  now  given  to  put  forth  the  hand  of 
faith,  and  pluck  and  eat  of  the  tree  of  life,  would  but  consider 
where  their  refusal  of  the  gospel  must  end  ;  how  they  will  be 
able  to  meet  the  claims  of  the  law,  and  the  righteous  judgment 
of  God  upon  their  sins,  and  upon  this  their  crying  sin,  the 
rejection  of  Christ  and  him  crucified  ;  how  they  will  endure 
the  everlasting  inflictions  of  the  wrath  of  God  poured  out  upon 
their  souls  in  all  the  torments  of  eternal  damnation.  O  bethink 
you  of  the  unutterable  horror  and  despair  that  will  seize  upon 
your  souls,  when  this  Jesus  whom  you  now  despise  shall  be 
revealed  in  flaming  fire,  taking  vengeance,  the  vengeance  of  the 
law  and  of  the  gospel,  on  them  that  know  not  God  and  obey 
not  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  now  while  it  is 
called  to-day,  flee  to  the  cross  of  Christ  as  the  only  refuge 
for  all  who  have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God. 

IV.  Fourthly,  I  am  to  show  you  what  is  meant  by  Christ's 
being  the  end  of  the  law. 

The  common  meaning  of  the  word  end  being  liable  to  mis- 
lead us  in  the  right  understanding  of  this  passage  of  Scripture, 
we  must  consider  that,  besides  denoting  the  close  or  conclusion 
of  a  thing,  it  also  frequently  expresses  the  object  or  purpose  in 
view,  and  it  is  used  here  in  both  those  meanings.     For, 

First,  he  was  the  end  or  conclusion  of  the  legal  dispensations 


CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW. 


179 


as  it  Is  called,  or  method  of  religion  enjoined  upon  the  Jews, 
which  was  imposed  until  the  promised  seed  should  come.  But 
he  was  also  the  end  or  object  to  which  all  its  sacrifices  and 
expiations  pointed,  and  on  whom  the  devout  worshipper  was 
directed  to  fix  his  faith,  as  the  true  sin  offering  and  propitiation 
shadowed  out  by  the  temple  service  ;  as  he  also  was  of  all  the 
sacrifices  and  acts  of  worship  enjoined  upon  men  from  the 
beginning,  as  we  see  exemplified  in  the  case  of  Abel,  who  was 
accepted  as  righteous  because  he  offered  by  faith,  or  with  faith 
in  that  great  atonement  for  sin  which  was  to  be  manifested  in 
due  time. 

Secondly,  as  the  original  purpose  or  design  of  the  law  under 
which  man  was  put,  was  the  prevention  of  sin,  and  as  Christ 
hath  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself,  therefore,  having 
accomplished  what  the  law  could  not  do,  he  is  said  to  be  the  end 
of  the  law  as  having  answered  its  object.  For  thus  the  apostle 
argues,  What  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it  was  weak  through 
the  Jlesh,  God  sending  his  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh 
and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh,  that  the  righteousness  of  the 
law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh  but  after 
the  Spirit. 

Lastly,  as  the  law  required  obedience  or  death,  and  its  claims 
upon  us  grew  out  of  transgression,  therefore,  he  who  fulfilled 
all  its  demands  by  the  obedience  of  his  life  and  the  submission 
of  his  death,  and  did  this  that  he  might  bring  in  everlasting  right- 
eousness, may  nghtly  be  said  to  have  answered  all  its  purposes, 
and,  therefore,  be  styled  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  ; 
and  thus,  my  brethren,  we  may  discern  why  and  how  he  is  so  to 
every  one  that  believeth.  The  claims  of  the  law  upon  us  arising 
only  from  our  sins,  and  the  death  of  Christ  having  fully  satis- 
fied the  demands  of  penal  justice,  a  door  is  opened  for  mercy  to 
enter  in,  while  the  law  is  magnified  and  honoured,  so  that  God 
can  be  just  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  believeth  in  Jesus.  And 
hence  we  leam  why  faith  in  Christ  is  the  indispensable  condi- 
tion of  the  new  covenant  purchased  by  his  blood.  By  no  other 
means  can  we  become  parties  to  this  covenant  but  by  a  per- 
sonal submission  to  the  law  of  Christ  in  the  gospel,  for  unless 
we  believe  it,  the  gospel  is  a  dead  letter.  By  no  other  means  can 


180  CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW. 

we  escape  from  the  condemnation  of  the  law. — Cursed  is  every 
one  that  conlinueth  not  in  all  things  written  in  the  laiv,  to  do  them 
— For  he  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already.     By  no  other 
means  can  we  obtain  that  grace  which  renews  the  heart  and 
guides  the  Hfe  to  holiness. — He  that  believeth  in  me,  as  the  Scrip- 
ture hath  said,  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  ivater. 
By  no  other  means  are  we  reconciled  to  God  and  adopted  as 
his  children. —  Ye  are  all  the  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Christ 
Jesus.     By  no  other  means  than  faith  in  the  Son  of  God  can 
we  obtain  a  happy  life,  a  peaceful  death,  a  joyful  resurrection, 
and  a  glorious  immortality. — /  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life, 
saith  the  Lord  ;   he  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  ivere  dead  yet 
shall  he  live,  and  whosoever  livcth  and  believeth  in  me  shall  never 
die.     Thus  may  every  believer  say  with  the  apostle,  /  through 
the  law  am  dead  to  the  law,  that  I  might  live  unto  God  ;   /  am  cru- 
cified with  Christ,  nevertheless  1  live ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth 
in  me ;  and  the  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  by  the  faith 
of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for  me. 

God  grant,  dear  brethren,  that  we  may  all  make  this  applica- 
tion of  what  has  been  said,  and  of  what  this  fruitful  subject  may 
present  to  our  private  meditations,  and  no  longer  live  to  another, 
but  to  liim  who  hath  bought  us  with  his  own  blood,  and  made  us 
kings  and  priests  to  God,  even  his  Father ;  never  forgetting,  that 
though  we  are  indeed  dead  to  the  law  hy  the  body  of  Christ  as 
a  covenant  of  life,  yet  we  are  not  without  law  to  God,  but  under 
the  law  to  Christ,  even  the  law  of  faith,  which  worketh  by 
love,  overcomes  the  world,  and  sits  down  at  the  right  hand  of 
God,  whither  Jesus  is  gone  before  to  prepare  a  place  for  us, 
that  where  he  is  there  we  may  be  also,  beholding  his  glory. 

And  may  the  same  gracious  God  grant  that  these  our  dear 
friends  and  connexions  present,  and  all  under  the  sound  of  the 
gospel  who  are  yet  strangers  to  this  Jesus,  may  be  moved  to  lay 
these  solemn  truths  to  heart.  May  they  hear  the  holy  law  of  God 
requiring  their  obedience  or  their  blood ;  and  if  love  cannot 
draw,  may  the  terrors  of  the  Lord  drive  them  to  the  cross 
of  Christ  as  their  only  refuge  from  its  claims.  Oh  !  my 
poor  fellow  sinners,  ask  yourselves  seriously  why  it  is  that 
the   glad   tidings  of  the  gospel  have   no   charms   for   you? 


CHRIST    THE    END    OF    THE    LAW.  181 

why  an  offered  heaven  and  a  threatened  hell  have  so  little 
power  to  move  you  from  the  tents  of  sin  1  why  a  stricken  con- 
science is  put  aside  to  another  opportunity  1  and  you  will  learn 
that  it  is  through  unbelief,  and  awake,  perhaps,  to  the  danger  of 
your  state.  Oh  !  the  wretched  condition  of  that  person  who 
lives  without  God  in  the  world,  without  a  Saviour,  without  faith, 
without  hope,  without  love,  exposed  to  all  the  claims  of  the  law 
without  a  shelter  from  its  vengeance — who  must  come  to  death 
and  judgment  Avith  nothing  to  present  to  God  but  a  body  and 
soul  poisoned  with  sin,  and  fit  only  for  the  society  of  devils  and 
damned  spirits.  Oh  !  the  misery  of  the  gospel  sinner  !  How 
will  the  fallen  angels  mock  at  him,  and  glory  over  him,  in  the 
great  and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord  !  How  gladly  would  they 
embrace  what  he  makes  light  of — salvation  provided,  righteous- 
ness wrought  out,  a  Saviour  offered,  peace  given,  heaven 
opened,  and  glory  promised.  Aioake  then,  thou  that  steepest, 
and  arise  from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light.  He 
is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  believeth, 
and  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  him ;  for  there  is  none 
other  name  under  heaven  given  amongst  men  ivhereby  we  must  be 
saved,  only  the  name  0/ Jesus  Christ  of  J^azareth. 


SERMON   XVI. 

CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL. 

John  xv.  5,  latter  clause. 
"  For  without  me  ye  can  do  notliing." 

Among  the  many  inventions  which  men  have  sought  out  on 
the  subject  of  religion,  or,  which  is  the  same  tiling,  on  the  means 
of  obtaining  and  securing  the  favour  of  God,  there  is  none  more 
prevalent  in  the  present  day,  or  more  ruinous  to  the  souls  of 
men,  than  that  of  a  partial  reception  of  the  gospel.  But  few 
can  be  found  who  are  hardy  enough  to  reject  and  disclaim  it 
altogether.  Though  there  are  some  such,  yet  there  are  multitudes 
who  receive  it  no  farther  than  to  claim  for  their  sins  the  cover  of 
its  mercy,  while  they  refuse  their  hearts  and  hves  to  its  trans- 
forming grace  and  holy  requirements. 

But,  as  it  must  be  evident  to  all  that  this  desperate  delusion 
which  makes  Christ  the  minister  of  sin,  could  have  no  place 
were  the  gospel  with  its  awful  discoveries  and  merciful  provi- 
sions more  carefully  considered,  I  trust  it  will  answer  my 
purpose  for  your  edification,  so  to  apply  the  words  of  my  text  as 
to  show  the  folly  and  insufficiency  of  a  partial  reception  of 
Christ  and  his  message  ; 

First,  to  man  as  a  fallen  sinner ;  and. 

Secondly,  to  the  same  creature  as  a  penitent  behever.  This 
I  shall  endeavour,  with  God's  help,  to  lay  plainly  before  you ; 
and,  then, 

Conclude  with  an  application  of  the  whole. 

For  without  me  ye  can  do  nothing. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  apply  these  words  to  man  as  a  fallen  sinner. 

To  do  this  to  any  advantage  we  must  consider  both  the  con- 
dition itself  and  its  consequences.  A  train  of  thought,  my 
hearers,  too  seldom  permitted  to  occupy  the  meditations  either 
of  the  more  serious  or  of  the  more  thoughtless  portion  of  those 


CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL.  183 

who  are,  nevertheless,  the  subjects  of  this  tremendous  ruin, 
and  the  objects  of  that  rich  redeeming  love  whereby  its  desola- 
tions are  staid  and  its  miseries  may  be  averted. 

The  state  of  man  as  a  fallen  sinner,  is  that  of  alienation  from 
God,  condemnation  to  eternal  death  for  the  violation  of  his 
holy  law,  without  the  means  of  escape  or  the  hope  of  deliver- 
ance by  any  thing  in  himself  And  the  consequences  of  this 
state  are,  spiritual  death,  or  the  loss  of  that  faculty  of  the  soul 
by  which  God  is  apprehended  as  the  chief  good,  loved  supremely, 
relied  upon  unreservedly,  and  obeyed  implicitly  ;  the  prevalence 
of  the  animal  nature,  or  flesh,  as  it  is  called  in  Scripture,  where- 
by the  original  order  of  the  affections  and  desires  is  perverted, 
so  that  instead  of  being  in  subjection  to  the  law  of  the  mind,  the 
mind  or  reason  of  the  man  is  become  subservient  to  the  law  in 
the  members ;  and  the  exposure,  without  remedy,  to  natural 

evil,  in  pain,  sickness,  decay,  and  death  of  the  body with  fear 

alarm,  disappointment,  sorrow,  and  suffering,  both  of  mind  and 
body,  as  the  bitter  fruit  of  that  heavy  curse  which  sin  has  entailed 
upon  this  earth,  and  upon  all  its  inhabitants. 

This  is  the  true  condition  of  fallen  man  when  considered  as 
unredeemed,  and  is  indispensable  to  any  rational  comprehension 
of  the  actual  condition  of  mankind,  and  of  their  obligations  and 
duties  under  the  advantages  of  revealed  religion  and  instituted 
means  of  grace.     It  is  also  his  condition  as  redeemed,  with  this 
difference,  that  what  in  the  one  case  was  absolute  and  irrecover- 
able by  man  himself,  is  now,  by  the  undertaking  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  as  man's  representative,  become  conditional  and 
recoverable.     The  spiritual  death  consequent  on  the  first  trans- 
gression, and  which  precluded  the  possibility  of  trial,  is  removed 
by  the  restored  competency  of  moral  beings  to  apprehend  the 
truth  of  their  condition,  and  to  apply  the  means  provided  for 
their  restoration  to  the  favour  of  God  and  to  eternal  life,  through 
the  grace  given  them  in  Christ  Jesus.     And  thus  St  Paul 
argues  in  his  epistle  to  the  Romans-.^,  by  the  offence  of  one 
judgment  came  upon   all  men  to  condemnation;  even  so,  by  the 
righteousness  of  one  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men,  unto  justifica- 
tion  of  life.    And  again,  in  his  epistle  to  Titus- n.  grace  of  Gob 
which  bnngeth  salvation,  hath  appeared  to  all  men.    Now   this  free 


184 


CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL. 


gift  and  measure  of  divine  grace,  are  equally  the  purchase  a( 
the  death  of  Christ,  by  virtue  of  which  the  gospel  is  preached  to 
us,  and  we  are  rendered  capable  of  believing  its  truth,  embracing 
its  promises,  obeying  its   precepts,   and  inheriting  its  reward. 

Of  this  new  state,  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  purchaser  and  pro- 
curer, is  constituted  the  Lord  and  king.  It  is  the  kingdom  of 
God's  dear  Son,  as  the  apostle  expresses  it.  Whatever  relates 
to  its  government  and  administration  is  delegated  to  him.  God 
hath  put  all  things  under  his  feet  and  gave  him  to  be  head  over  all 
things  to  the  Church,  in  which  Christ  ruleth  as  a  son  over  his  own 
house  ;  angels,  and  authorities,  and  principalities,  and  powers,  being 
made  subject  unto  him.  And  all  that  concerns  its  close  and  con- 
summation, is  to  be  transacted  by  him  in  person. — The  Father 
judgeth  no  man,  but  hath  committed  all  judgment  unto  the  Son,  and 
hath  given  him  authority  to  execute  judgment  also,  because  he  is 
the  Son  of  man.  For  we  must  all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  according  to  the  deeds  done  in 
this  body,  wliether  they  he  good  or  ivhether  they  be  evil.  With  the 
deepest  truth,  therefore,  is  it  said  in  my  text,  Without  me  ye  can 
do  nothing. 

Would  fallen  man,  then,  blind  and  ignorant  as  he  is  in  himself, 
know  the  truth  of  his  actual  condition,  he  must  come  to  Jesus 
Christ,  the  word  and  the  wisdom  of  God,  a  light  of  the  Gentiles 
to  open  the  blind  eyes,  to  bring  out  the  prisoner  from  the  prison, 
and  them  that  sit  in  darkness  out  of  the  prison  house.  No  where 
else  can  certainty  and  satisfaction  be  obtained  on  those  points 
which  are  beyond  the  range  of  his  experience  and  observation. 

Would  fallen  man  profit  by  the  knowledge  thus  revealed  from 
Heaven,  he  must  come  to  Jesus  Christ,  that  the  Spirit  of 
life  may  quicken  him  to  apprehend  the  saving  truths  of  the 
gospel.  The  letter  killeth,  but  the  Spirit  giveth  life.  The  words 
that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit,  and  they  are  life,  says  our 
blessed  Lord. 

Would  fallen  man  be  delivered  from  the  condemnation  under 
which  he  is  held  by  reason  of  original  sin,  he  must  come  to 
Jesus  Christ,  who  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  laiv, 
being  made  a  curse  for  us. 

Would  he  be  released  from  the  guilt  of  his  own  personal  sins. 


CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL.  185 

he  must  come  to  Jesus  Christ,  tchom  God  hath  set  forth  to  be 
a  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  xcorld;  in  whom  we  have 
redemption  through  his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 

Would  fallen  man  be  quickened  into  spiritual  life,  he  must 
come  to  Jesus  Christ,  who  alone  baptizeth  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Would  he  be  reconciled  to  God  and  translated  into 
the  kingdon  of  his  dear  Son,  he  must  come  to  Jesus  Christ, 
who  hath  made  peace  by  the  blood  of  his  cross — in  whom  God 
tvas  reconciling  the  tcorld  to  himself,  by  whom  only  ive  have  access 
to  the  Father. 

And  would  fallen  man  be  furnished  for  this  hi's  new  relation  to 
God,  and  for  the  duties  and  the  hopes  which  belong  to  it,  he 
must  come  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  prophet,  the  priest,  and  the 
king  of  this  gracious  dispensation  of  mercy  and  love.  For  in 
him  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  insdom  and  knowledge,  in  whom 
it  pleased  the  Father  that  all  fulness  shoidd  dwell,  of  whose  ful- 
ness we  have  all  received,  and  who  tells  us  in  my  text,  without  me 
ye  can  do  nothing. 

Thus  indispensable,  my  dear  hearers,  is  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  to  all  spiritual  attainment  in  fallen  man.  As  he  inter- 
posed by  the  will  of  God  between  tJie  sentence  of  the  law  and 
its  infliction  on  the  first  transgressors,  and  by  consenting  to  suffer 
the  penalty  in  their  stead  obtained  a  reprieve  for  them,  so  did 
he  also  obtain  for  them  the  means  of  recovery  and  salvation ; 
and  in  due  time  came  forth  from  the  Father,  to  proclaim  the 
glad  tidings  to  the  world,  to  expiate  the  guilt  of  sin  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  cross,  and  by  the  high  discoveries  of  the  gospel  to 
draw  mankind  to  that  eternal  life  which  is  only  to  be  found  in 
him.  But  to  be  found  it  must  be  sought,  as  the  one  thing  needful, 
as  the  main  concern  of  this  short  and  uncertain  state  of  being. 
For  salvation  is  the  fate  of  no  man's  nature,  but  the  purchased 
reward  of  faith  and  renewed  obedience  to  the  law  of  life  in  the 
gospel.  As  the  undertaking  of  the  Son  of  God  restored  the 
moral  competency  of  human  nature,  that  competency  must  be 
put  forth  by  each  individual,  according  to  the  conditions  of  that 
dispensation  of  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  under 
which  it  pleases  God  to  call  him  into  being.  Under  the  light  of 
the  gospel,  more  especially,  is  this  duty  indispensably  required  of 

Vol.  IL— 24 


186 


CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL. 


all  who  would  be  saved  ;  Christ  and  the  power  of  his  grace 
are  freely  offered  to  all  to  whom  the  gospel  is  preached — but  to 
be  obtained  men  must  come  to  Christ  according  to  the  direc- 
tions of  the  gospel.  They  must  strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate,  by  a  hearty  repentance  and  forsaking  all  sin,  and  to  walk 
in  the  narrow  way  of  holy  obedience  to  the  commands  and 
example  of  Christ,  For  the  gospel  does  not  act  like  a  charm, 
nor  yet  will  Christ  be  found  the  minister  of  sin,  by  owning  those 
who  ccdl  him  Lord,  yet  do  not  the  things  ivhich  he  says.  And  on 
so  weighty  a  concern  as  salvation,  carelessness  and  unconcern  are 
nothing  short  of  contempt  of  God,  and  if  persisted  in  must  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  gnawingsof  the  worm  that  never  dies,by  the  torments 
of  the  fire  that  never  shall  be  quenched.  From  this  endless  misery 
Christ  alone  can  save  you,  my  dear  hearers  ;  and  he  can  and 
will  save  you  no  otherwise  than  as  he  hath  openly  proclaimed  in 
his  word.  Awake  then,  thou  that  steepest,  and  arise  from  the 
dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light.  There  is  yet  place  for 
repentance  ;  the  sparing  mercy  of  God  yet  waits  for  you,  and 
that  same  Jesus  who  this  day  tells  you,  without  me  ye  can  da 
nothing,  also  proclaims,  him  that  cometh  unto  me  I  ivill  in  no  wise 
cast  out. 

But  it  is  not  only  as  the  purchaser  of  a  day  of  reprieve  and 
grace  to  fallen  man,  that  Jesus  Christ  is  thus  all  important. 
He  is  the  finisher  as  well  as  the  author  of  our  faith  and  hope. 
This  he  represents  to  us  in  the  verse  immediately  before  my 
text,  by  the  figure  of  a  vine  and  its  branches.  As  the  branch 
cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself,  except  it  abide  in  the  vine,  no  more  can 
ye,  except  ye  abide  in  me.  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches.  He 
that  abideth  in  me  the  same  bringeth  forth  much  fruit — for  with- 
out me  ye  can  do  nothing. 

Now  though  these  words  were  spoken  primarily  to  and  of  his 
apostles,  and  had  an  application  to  them,  and  yet  have  to 
those  who  come  after  them  in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel, 
distinct  from  what  they  have  to  men  in  general,  yet  in  their 
plain  and  obvious  meaning  they  refer  to  all  who  claim  an 
interest  in  the  gospel-  As  Christ  is  the  head  of  the  body, 
and  Christians  are  every  one  members  in  particular,  their 
union  with  him  and  abiding  in  him  is  just  as  essential  for  the 


CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL.  187 

supply  of  spiritual  life  and  motion,  as  that  of  the  members  with 
the  natural  body,  or  of  the  branches  with  the  vine. 

But  the  entertainment  of  sin  severs  this  union  with  Christ,  and 
destroys  our  abiding  in  him  ;  which  can  no  otherwise  be  restored 
than  by  a  true  and  effectual  repentance-  And  as  the  grace  of 
repentance  is  obtained  for  fallen  creatures  by  the  undertaking 
of  the  Son  of  God,  and  is  accepted  only  for  his  sake,  and 
through  faith  in  him,  a  consideration  of  the  particulars  which 
must  unite  to  render  repentance  and  faith  available  to  the 
pardon  of  sin,  will  show  as  was  proposed,  in  the 

11.  Second  place,  the  absolute  importance  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  to  the  hope  of  the  penitent  sinner. 

Sin  is  an  offence  against  Almighty  God  by  the  transgression 
of  his  positive  command,  and  for  which  eternal  death  is  an- 
nounced as  the  just  punishment. 

Conviction  of  sin  is  the  sense  of  guilt  and  condemnation 
thereby  incurred,  impressed  upon  the  heart  by  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

Repentance  is  a  godly  sorrow  for  sin,  wrought  in  the  soul  by 
the  same  Holy  Spirit,  and  evidenced  by  forsaking  sin  and  by 
earnest  desire  of  pardon  and  reconciliation  with  God,  expressed 
in  fervent  and  continued  prayer  and  supplication. 

But  the  Holy  Ghost,  with  all  his  operations  in  and  upon  the 
hearts  of  men  for  salvation,  is  the  purchase  of  the  death  of 
Christ.  Hence  there  is  neither  conviction  of  sin,  nor  repen- 
tance for  sin,  nor  faith  to  apprehend  its  danger,  nor  deliverance 
from  its  condemnation  without  Christ,  without  an  entire  Saviour, 
the  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  man's  salvation. 

What  satisfaction  can  the  convinced  sinner  make  to  the  infinite 
justice  of  Almighty  God,  for  those  violations  of  his  holy  law  of 
which  he  feels  and  owns  himself  guilty  1  Repentance  is  not  atone- 
ment, nor  can  amended  life,  were  either  of  them  possible  without 
the  grace  given  us  in  Christ  Jesus,  undo  past  guilt  and  remove 
incurred  condemnation.  Without  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no 
remission.  But  the  sinner's  own  blood  is  demanded  by  the  law, 
not  as  an  expiation  but  as  a  penalty.  What  resort  is  there, 
then,  but  to  him  ivho  is  exalted  a  prince  and  a  Saviour  to  give 
repentance  to  Israel,  and  remission  of  sinsi    Where  can  the 


188 


CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL. 


sinner  find  an  atonement  but  in  that  blood  which  was  poured  out 
upon  the  cross,  as  a  propitiation  and  full  satisfaction  to  the  divine 
justice  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  ]  This  is  the  only  expia- 
tion for  the  guilt  of  sin  worthy  for  man  to  offer  or  for  God 
to  accept.  It  is  the  only  substitute  for  the  sinner's  own  blood, 
forfeited  to  the  justice  of  God  ;  and  the  revealed  atonement  to 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  directs  the  penitent  behever,  enabling 
him  to  apply  it  to  himself  personally,  as  the  meritorious  ground  of 
his  forgiveness  and  acceptance  with  God. — Being  justified  by 
faithf  we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

But  not  only  in  what  is  outward  and  visible  in  the  regulation 
of  the  life,  but  in  the  mightier  work  of  renewing  the  heart  and 
purifying  it  from  the  corruptions  which  sin  hath  engendered,  of 
transforming  the  soul  to  the  image  of  its  holy  Creator,  and  of 
sanctifying  the  whole  creature  to  God,  is  it  evident  that  icilhout 
Christ  xoe  can  do  nothing. 

We  have  no  access  to  the  heart,  my  dear  hearers,  not  even  to 
discern  its  desperate  wickedness  and  estrangement  from  God, 
far  less  to  change  its  affections  and  renew  its  qualities,  without 
light  from  heaven.  This  is  the  work  of  the  great  physician  of 
souls,  and  only  by  following  his  prescriptions  can  its  original 
health  be  restored.  To  call  off  the  affections  from  the  perish- 
ing vanities  of  time,  to  elevate  them  to  holy  and  heavenly  desires, 
and  fix  them  on  God  as  the  chief  good  is  no  human  work  ; 
yet  it  is  set  before  us  as  the  condition  on  which  eternal  life 
depends.  Without  Christ,  then,  my  friends,  what  can  we  do, 
without  his  Holy  Spirit  to  work  this  mighty  change,  to  create 
in  us  a  new  heart,  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  us,  what  hope 
of  success  1  Who  can  bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean  ? 
O  that  those  who  go  about  to  establish  their  own  righteousness, 
and  contract  religion  to  the  meagre  morality  of  external  decency 
and  decorum  of  conduct,  would  but  consider  this ;  that  the 
Pharisees  of  the  gospel,  who  have  a  form  of  godliness  but  deny 
the  power  thereof,  would  bring  their  accommodations  of  reli- 
gion to  the  will  of  the  flesh,  to  the  experience  of  a  new  principle 
wrought  in  the  soul  by  the  Spirit  op  Christ!  Then  they 
might  see  and  understand  the  application  of  motives  to  the 
conduct  of  moral  beings ;  how  the  very  same  actions  in  different 


CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL.  189 

persons  are,  nevertheless,  in  the  sight  of  God,  of  opposite 
qualities.  He  looketh  on  the  heart,  my  brethren,  and  can 
accept  nothing  from  fallen  creatures  but  what  springs  from  the 
grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  purifying  it  and  working  by- 
love.  Can  a  muddy  fountain  send  forth  pure  water  1  No,  my 
hearers.  How,  then,  can  the  unrenewed  heart  bring  forth  fruit 
unto  God.  Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his  skin  or  the  leopard  his 
spots  ?  No,  my  friends,  neither  can  the  fallen  sinner  change 
his  nature  or  undo  his  guilt.  Come,  then,  to  Jesus  Christ, 
that  what  without  him  ye  cannot  do  may  by  his  grace  be 
accomplished.  This  is  the  turning  point  of  this  great  salvation. 
As  none  but  the  sick  need  the  physician,  so  until  we  feel  that 
there  is  no  health  in  us — until  we  learn  the  plague  of  our  own 
hearts,  and  are  savingly  convinced  of  the  ruined  helplessness  of 
our  sinful  nature  ;  there  is  no  form  or  comeliness  in  Jesus 
Christ  that  we  should  desire  him.  We  neither  understand  or 
feel,  that  the  whole  sufficiency  of  fallen  sinners  is  of  God  ;  that 
from  first  to  last  we  are  saved  by  grace,  and  that  without 
Christ  we  can  do  nothing. 

As  the  grace  and  power  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  are  thus 
indispensable  to  quicken  us  to  repentance  and  faith,  and  the 
virtue  of  his  blood  shed  for  us  alov-e  available  to  procure  the  par- 
don of  sin,  they  are  no  less  essential  to  render  all  that  we  subse- 
quently do  in  the  way  of  duty  acceptable  to  God. 

Our  repentance  and  faith,  our  love  and  obedience,  our 
prayers  and  praises,  our  worship  and  service,  are  in  themselves 
imperfect  and  unworthy  of  that  pure  and  holy  Being  in  whose 
sight  the  heavens  are  not  clean,  and  who  charges  even  his 
angels  with  folly.  The  very  holiest  of  our  duties  have  in  them 
a  seasoning  of  sin,  my  brethren,  and  the  most  earnest  of  our 
endeavours  are  coupled  with  infirmity  both  of  purpose  and 
performance.  Here,  then,  we  may  reahze  the  absolute  import- 
ance to  us  of  that  Jesus,  who  not  only  procured  a  day  and 
means  of  grace  for  sinners,  but  who  ever  liveth  to  make  inter- 
cession for  them  ;  to  present  their  prayers  and  praises  before  the 
throne  of  God  ;  to  render  their  sincere  though  imperfect 
services  acceptable  in  the  eye  of  purity  and  hoHness,  and  as 
their  great  High  Priest  to  offer  up  continually  in  the  presence  of 


190  CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL. 

God,  in  behalf  of  his  people,  the  meritorious  righteousness  and 
perfect  obedience  of  his  sinless  life,  the  humiliation  of  his  passion, 
and  the  atonement  of  his  death,  as  the  ground  of  their  faith  and 
hope  of  the  favour  of  God  and  eternal  life. 

Nor  is  this  all,  my  brethren.  When  the  life  of  faith  has  carried 
the  Christian  victorious  through  the  trials  of  this  mortal  pilgrim- 
age, the  grave,  nevertheless,  avi^aits  him,  and  he  must  receive 
the  wages  due  to  sin  in  the  stroke  of  death.  Here,  then,  if  no 
where  else,  if  never  before,  must  man  perceive  and  feel  his  own 
impotency,  must  acknowledge  his  utmost  strength  to  be  but 
corruption.  His  prospects  all  closed,  his  expectations  cut  oif, 
his  active  powers  mouldered  into  dust,  what  would  the  hope 
even  of  the  righteous  be  worth,  but  for  Jesus  Christ'?  Can 
human  power  burst  the  prison  of  the  grave  and  recall  the  dead 
to  life  1  No.  The  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  alone  is  competent 
to  this  Almighty  work ;  and  the  hour  is  coming  ichen  all  that 
are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  his  voice  and  shall  come  forth,  they 
that  have  done  good  unto  the  resurrection  of  life,  and  they  that 
have  done  evil  unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation.  This  is  what 
gives  such  an  awful  impression  to  the  hour  of  our  dissolution, 
my  hearers.  This  is  what  gives  to  the  grace  and  hope  of  the 
gospel  their  infinite  value,  and.to  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  its 
high  pre-eminence  above  every  name  in  heaven  and  on  earth. 
He  tasted  death  for  every  man,  that  through  death  he  might  destroy 
him  who  had  the  power  of  death.  He  rose  from  the  dead  to  give 
assurance  unto  all  men,  that  they  also  should  not  be  holden  of 
death.  He  ascended  up  into  heaven  the  first  born  of  many 
brethren,  whither  he  has  gone  before  to  prepare  a  place  for  his 
faithful  followers.  And  he  will  come  again  in  the  glory  of  his 
Father  with  the  retinue  of  heaven,  to  sit  in  judgment  on  his 
people  and  on  the  world. 

Then  will  be  seen  the  full  extent  of  his  power,  and  then  will 
be  felt  the  full  value  of  that  union  with  him  which  is  now  to  be 
obtained  on  the  conditions  of  the  gospel,  and  including  as  it 
does,  by  the  appointment  of  God,  the  wisdom,  righteousness, 
sanctification,  and  redemption  of  obedient  believers,  will  consti- 
tute their  title  to  a  place  at  his  right  hand.  Then  will  be  realized 
the  deep  importance  of  confessing  him  before  men,  both  with 


CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL.  191 

the  lips  and  with  the  life.  Then  shall  be  perceived  the  unspeak- 
able advantage  of  Christian  privileges,  however  lightly  they  are 
now  esteemed  by  the  thousands  who  disdainfully  cast  them 
behind  their  backs,  and  are  wilfully  strangers  to  their  use. 
Then  will  these  now  despised  things  be  found  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation  through  faith  working  by  love,  and  a  preached 
gospel,  with  its  high  discoveries,  its  precious  promises,  its  life- 
giving  hope,  and  its  saving  sacraments,  become  by  neglect  the 
savour  of  death  in  them  that  perish,  will  deepen  torment  with 
the  never  ceasing  but  useless  regret  that  they  might  have 
escaped,  but  they  Avould  not. 

Oh!  what  a  tormenting  thought  it  will  be— and  never  to  pass 
into  forgetfulness,  my  hearers — that  during  our  day  of  grace  we 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  counsel  of  God,  a  hard  heart  to  the  love 
of  Christ,  and  stifled  the  convictions  of  his  Holy  Spirit  ; 
that  we  never  received  because  we  would  not  ask  ;  that  we 
never  found  because  we  would  not  seek  ;  that  the  door  of 
mercy  is  shut  against  us  for  ever  because  while  it  stood  open 
to  receive  us  we  refused  to  enter  in  ;  that  our  blood  is  now 
demanded  by  the  righteous  law  of  God  because  we  trampled 
under  foot  the  blood  of  Christ,  and,  though  sinners  in  nature 
and  practice,  dared  to  meet  God  in  judgment  without  the  shield 
of  the   Redeemer's  merits  sought  and  obtained  by  faith. 

Thus  have  I  shown  you,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  though  in 
a  very  brief  and  contracted  manner,  compared  with  the  extent 
of  the  subject,  that  in  our  main  concern,  the  salvation  of  our 
souls,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  all  in  all ;  that,  as  the  pro- 
curing cause  and  sustaining  power  of  all  spiritual  life,  he  is  the 
Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  first  and  the  last ;  that,  from  the 
first  seed  of  divine  grace  implanted  in  the  heart  to  the  awful 
consummation  of  Come  ye  blessed,  or.  Depart  ye  cursed,  without 
him  we  can  do  nothing. 

The  application,  then,  or  improvement  of  what  has  been 
said,  refers  to  the  personal  condition  of  all  present,  as  if  about 
to  appear  before  God,  and  will  be  profitable  to  you,  my  hearers, 
only  as  this  is  realized.  The  wonderful  and  effectual  provision 
for  your  salvation,  revealed  in  the  gospel,  hath  surrounded  you 
from  infancy  to  the  present  moment ;   the  truths  connected 


192  CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL. 

with  it  have  been  repeatedly  pressed  upon  your  consciences ; 
and  the  experience  of  your  own  hearts  must  have  confirmed  the 
testimony  of  revelation  to  the  fallen,  depraved  condition  of 
human  nature,  and  the  consequent  alienation  from  God  of  every 
sinful  creature.  Now  is  this  to  continue  ]  I  speak  to  those  who 
are  careless  of  and  unconnected  with  religion — alas  !  that  they 
should  be  the  great  majority  in  every  Christian  land — is  this 
state  of  desperate  and  wilful  opposition  to  God  to  be  persisted 
in?  If  not — and  I  trust  that  this  is  the  better  thought  which  some- 
times presents  its  awakenings  to  your  consciences,  wherefore  is 
it  not  at  once  acted  upon  1  If  the  power  of  sin  over  you  now 
is  so  great,  and  the  love  of  sin  in  you  so  strong  as  to  overrule 
the  command  of  God  and  the  reason  of  your  own  minds,  will 
its  influence  be  weakened  by  indulgence,  or  its  mastery  be  more 
easily  shaken  off  when  confirmed  by  habit  1  Who  among  you 
has  not  the  testimony  in  his  own  experience,  confirming  that  of 
St.  Paul,  to  the  power  and  prevalence  of  the  carnal  mind]  To 
will  is  present  loith  me,  but  hoiv  to  perform  that  which  is  good  I  find 
not ;  for  the  good  that  I  would  I  do  not,  hut  the  evil  which  I  would 
not  that  I  do.  For  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward 
man,  but  I  see  another  law  in  my  members  warring  against  the  law 
of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  lohich 
is  in  my  members — and  who  is  not  hereby  taught  the  practical 
lesson,  that  if  he  would  be  saved  he  must  be  delivered  from  the 
body  of  his  death  ? 

And  shall  it  speak  so  plain  and  come  so  close  to  your  con- 
sciences, only  to  be  driven  away  with  the  thousands  of  good 
resolutions,  and  yet  deferred  amendments  of  life,  which  the  law 
of  sin  has  already  triumphed  over?  God  forbid,  my  dear 
hearers.  Rather  let  counsel  be  taken  from  past  weakness,  and 
courage  be  derived  from  this  precious  gift  of  the  love  of  God 
yet  waiting  upon  you,  to  come  to  Christ.  Let  the  sin  that  so 
easily  besets  you,  that  you  have  tried  once  and  again  to  conquer 
but  have  failed,  let  the  frequent  resolve  to  begin  a  Christian 
life,  which  has  vanished  before  the  temptations  of  the  world  like 
the  morning  cloud  and  the  early  dew,  prove  to  you  that  in  your 
own  strength  you  can  do  nothing;  and  bring  you,  with  purpose 
of  heart,  to  the  sure  and  sufficient  friend  of  the  weary  and  heavy 


CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL.  193 

laden  sinner,  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  wlio  came  that  a  race 
of  sinners  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 
abundantly  ;  who  redeemed  them  to  God  by  his  own  blood,  that 
he  might  redeem  them  from  all  iniquity  by  the  power  of  his 
grace ;  and  who  assures  them,  in  my  text,  that  without  him  they 
can  do  nothing. 

To  follow  the  world,  to  glitter  amidst  the  giddy  whirl  of  its 
intoxicating  vanities,  to  catch  its  vain  applause,  and  to  reap 
its  still  more  vain  reward,  may  be  accomplished  perhaps  without 
Christ  ;  and  the  angels  are  weeping  over  the  thousands  of 
redeemed  and  warned  immortals,  who  make  no  better  use  of 
the  grace  and  truth  which  came  by  Jesus  Christ.  But  to 
overcome  the  world,  to  withstand  its  allurements,  to  triumph 
alike  over  its  smiles  and  its  frowns,  and  so  to  use  as  not  abusing 
the  accommodations  and  enjoyments  which  are  left  amidst  the 
sin-blasted  ruins  of  its  once  happier  condition — who  of  himself, 
my  brethren,  is  sufficient  for  this  work '?  Yet,  if  heaven  is  our 
hope  on  the  ground  of  revealed  promises,  this  must  be  accom- 
plished in  all  who  would  see  God.  The  hold  which  the  world 
has  upon  our  affections  must  be  loosed,  the  power  it  possesses 
over  our  desires  must  be  broken,  and  the  grovelling  inclinations 
of  our  fallen  nature  elevated  to  more  substantial  and  enduring 
good  than  this  transitory  existence  can  supply.  And  whence 
is  this  to  come  but  from  above  1  And  how  is  this  to  be  obtain- 
ed but  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  for  the  joy  that  icas 
set  before  him,  endured  the  cross,  despising  the  shame,  and  is  noio 
set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God,  having  left  us  an 
example  that  we  should  follow  his  steps.  If  any  man  will  come 
after  me,  let  him  deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and 
follow  me.  In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribulation,  but  be  of  good 
cheer,  I  have  overcome  the  toorld. 

Reason  can  strike  the  balance  betwixt  time  and  eternity,  and 
master  the  calculation  which  dethrones  the  world  and  the  things 
that  are  in  it.  But  it  cannot  change  the  heart  and  turn  the 
longings  of  the  soul  to  God,  the  only  good.  Experience  can 
certify  how  weak  and  worthless  the  highest  worldly  delights 
are  to  satisfy  the  soul  and  confer  solid  peace  and  lasting 
happiness ;    but    it   cannot  fill   the   aching   void   which   this 

Vol.  IL— 25 


194  CHRIST    ALL    IN    ALL. 

discovery  makes,  or  teach  a  new  and  living  w^ay  to  life  and 
bliss.  These  must  come  from  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  through 
the  merits  and  intercession  of  the  great  High  Priest.  These 
must  be  sought  and  wrestled  for  in  fervent,  persevering 
prayer,  in  watchful  self-denial,  in  confiding  reliance  that  he 
who  hath  called  us  to  the  knowledge  of  this  grace  will  not 
withhold  his  mercies  from  the  sin-sick  soul,  but  will  bless  the 
endeavours  of  all  who  come  unto  God  by  him. 

Without  me  ye  can  do  nothing.  Truth,  Loud  !  And  may  thy 
blessing  write  it  in  every  heart,  thy  grace  make  it  triumphant 
over  all  opposition,  and  thy  power  bring  a  willing  and  obedient 
people  to  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God. 


SERMON  XVII. 

ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLY    THROUGH    CHRIST. 

MicAH  vi.  G. 
"  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord  and  bow  myself  before  the  high  God." 

Reflections  of  a  very  impressive  and  practical  character 
are  presented  to  every  serious  mind  by  this  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  can  hardly  fail,  I  should  think,  at  least  for  the  moment, 
to  prompt  a  similar  inquiry  even  to  the  more  thoughtless  and 
indifferent,  on  the  commanding  interest  of  their  relation  to  God 
and  expectations  from  him.  No  sentiment  is  more  universal,  I 
believe,  than  that  of  the  homage  due  to  the  Supreme  Being ; 
no  duty  more  important  than  to  ascertain  in  what  manner  that 
homage  is  to  be  rendered  ;  and  when,  if  we  carry  out  our  sense 
of  accountability  to  the  end,  we  shall  all  stand  before  our 
Judge,  language  is  insufficient  to  describe  the  misery  which 
must  follow  the  neglect  of  so  plain  an  obligation. 

It  is  an  overwhelming  thought,  my  brethren,  to  imagine  a 
dependent,  ignorant,  and  sinful  being  like  man,  about  to 
approach  the  glorious  m.ajesty,  resplendent  light,  and  unspotted 
holiness  of  Almighty  God  ;  to  picture  to  ourselves  the  conflicting 
emotions  which  throb  around  his  heart,  the  awful  anticipations 
which  absorb  his  thoughts,  and  the  agonizing  suspense  which 
weighs  down  his  spirit,  under  the  fearful  forecast  of  an  issue 
which  involves  eternity.  But  it  is  a  wise  and  a  profitable  exercise 
of  the  mind,  my  hearers,  for  it  is  an  interview  which  we  have  all 
to  meet,  and  on  our  preparation  for  it  more  will  depend  than 
can  be  conceived  or  spoken  of. 

The  words  of  my  text  do  not,  indeed,  refer  directly  to  the 
concluding  scene  of  our  trial  and  probation,  but  they  include  it> 
as  the  point  to  which  all  present  intercourse  with  God  should  be 
directed,  as  the  end  in  which  all  the  means  now  made  use  of 
must  terminate.    I  have,  therefore,  selected  them,  as  calculated 


196  ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLY    THROUGH    CHRIST. 

to  engage  your  thoughts  in  a  profitable  and  appropriate  course 
of  meditation,  to  lead  you  to  a  serious  scrutiny  and  careful  exam- 
ination of  your  own  hearts,  as  to  the  grounds  on  which  your 
religious  duties,  both  private  and  public,  are  performed,  as  to 
the  constancy  and  devotion  with  which  they  are  followed,  and 
as  to  the  effect  thereby  produced  on  the  heart  and  on  the  life. 
These  form  at  all  times  a  sure  test  of  religious  condition,  and  if 
duly  attended  to,  will  teach  you  the  advantage  of  frequently 
inquiring,  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and  how  my- 
self before  the  high  God.     I  shall,  therefore,  consider  them, 

I.  First,  as  a  source  of  appropriate  and  profitable  meditation. 

Seasons  of  retirement  and  recollection  are  indispensable  to 
the  Christian  ;  periods  of  serious  thought  and  devout  engage- 
ment of  the  heart,  when  the  cares  and  duties  of  the  world  are 
intermitted,  and  its  occupations  give  place  to  the  higher  occu- 
pation of  acquainting  ourselves  with  God,  and  of  communing 
with  our  own  spirit.  Without  this  salutary  practice,  it  may 
safely  be  affirmed,  that  religious  impressions  cannot  continue, 
but  will  decline  into  mere  formality,  and  defiver  us  back  to  the 
world  in  a  worse  condition  than  when  we  forsook  its  follies.  If 
the  unclean  spirit  hath  really  been  cast  out,  yet  if  his  former 
habitation  continue  empty,  however  well  it  may  be  garnished 
with  outward  profession,  our  Saviour  himself  gives  the  warning, 
that  he  will  return  with  a  reinforcement,  and  take  up  his  abode 
more  securely  than  before. 

Hence  it  would  appear,  that  religious  impression,  to  be  pro- 
fitable, must  be  encouraged  by  our  own  exertions,  must  be 
strengthened  by  reading  and  meditation,  deepened  by  prayer 
and  self-examination,  and  confirmed  by  the  practice  of  the  duties 
of  religion  ;  and  to  all  these,  seasons  of  retirement  and  devout 
recollection  are  essential.  For  the  mind  can  hardly  engage  in 
religious  self-examination,  or  in  the  meditation  of  holy  things, 
when  exposed  to  interruption.  Neither  can  it  enter  upon  this 
duty  without  seriousness  of  spirit,  without  some  solemn  impres- 
sion of  God,  of  eternity,  of  our  interest  in  him,  and  of  our  condi- 
tion as  respects  his  known  will,  and  the  appointments  of  his 
grace  for  our  salvation.  Now,  to  all  this,  the  thought,  wherewith 
shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  must,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  be 


ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLV    THROUGH    CHRIST.  197 

previous.  For  it  is  the  sense  of  seclusion  with  God,  of  his  pre- 
sence who  reads  the  heart.  It  is  the  feeling  sense  of  our  own 
vileness  and  sinfulness,  when  compared  with  his  perfect  purity 
and  holiness,  and  of  his  infinite  goodness  in  providing  for  our 
recovery,  that  solemnizes  the  spirit  and  shuts  out  inferior  things. 
So,  that  whether  we  read  his  word,  or  meditate  on  the  discoveries 
of  his  wisdom  and  mercy  to  his  creatures,  or  recall  his  provi- 
dences to  ourselves — whether  we  scan  the  frame  of  our  own 
spirit,  or  bring  our  sins  and  omissions  of  duty  to  account — whether 
we  are  humbled  in  penitence  or  exalted  in  praise,  God  presides 
over  the  thoughts  and  occupies  the  workings  of  the  heart. 

According,  then,  to  the  frequency  and  solemnity  with  which 
such  seasons  are  sought  for  and  improved,  may  Christians  look 

for  the  power  and  comfort  of  religion  to  increase  with  them 

may  they  expect  the  strength  of  temptation  to  decline,  the  power 
of  sin  to  be  broken,  and  the  practice  of  righteousness  to  be  con- 
firmed. And  according  to  the  sincerity  and  fervour  with  which 
they  persevere  in  thus  frequently  shutting  out  the  world  that 
they  may  hold  converse  with  God,  will  the  world  be  overcome, 
and  the  comfort  of  hope  and  the  assurance  of  faith  be  realized. 
For  in  religion,  as  in  other  things,  it  is  practice  that  makes  per- 
fect; and  progress  in  the  school  of  Christ  is  regulated  by  the 
same  law,  which,  in  all  other  pursuits,  limits  attainment  by 
endeavour,  and  bestows  advancement  according  to  proficiency. 
Unto  him  that  hath,  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  more 
abundance,  is  the  encouraging  declaration  which  our  gracious 
master  holds  out  to  his  disciples  to  industry  and  perseverance 
in  their  high  calling,  while  he  warns  the  slothful  and  the  negli- 
gent, that  from  him  that  hath  not,  shall  be  taken  away,  even  that 
which  he  hath. 

II.  Secondly,  I  will  consider  the  text  as  prompting  examina- 
tion as  to  the  grounds  on  which  your  religious  duties,  both 
private  and  pubhc,  are  performed. 

As  religion  is  the  reasonable  service  of  rational  beings,  all 
who  pretend  to  it  should  consider  carefully  whereon  it  is  found- 
ed, and  on  what  grounds  their  particular  views  of  its  doctrines 
and  practice  of  its  duties  are  supported,  by  the  plain  precepts  of 
God's  most  holy  word,      Whereivith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord, 


198  ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLY    TIIROUGFI    CHRIST. 

and  bow  myself  before  the  high  God,  is  an  inquiry  which,  from 
the  nature  of  things,  must  precede  all  religious  duty  on  the  part 
of  mankind,  and  must  ever  form  an  important  subject  of  consi- 
deration to  a  serious  mind.  But  as  the  answer  can  be  derived 
from  no  other  source  than  Cod  himself,  to  his  true  and  faithful 
word  only  can  we  look  with  certainty  lor  information  and 
direction.  Now,  my  brethren,  this  is  an  advantage  which  we 
possess  as  Christians,  not  as  men,  and  which,  as  Christians,  we 
all  have  to  account  for.  And  I  would  to  God,  that  both  as 
men  and  Christians,  we  were  more  alive  to  our  privileges  and 
obligations,  under  the  light  of  revealed  truth. 

That  we  have  no  means  independent  of  revelation  of  know- 
ing the  will  of  God  concerning  us,  and  of  determining  satisfac- 
torily in  what  manner  he  is  to  be  worshipped  and  wherewithal 
rendered  propitious  and  favourable  to  his  creatures,  is  a  truth 
proved  to  us  by  the  enormous  and  disgusting  superstitions  of 
Heathen  lands  both  ancient  and  modern. 

The  impression  is  universal  and  indelible  that  man  owes  reve- 
rence and  worship  to  his  Creator.  So  powerful  is  the  sentiment 
that  it  must,  in  some  way,  be  satisfied.  Yet  so  dense  is  the  cloud 
which  sin  has  spread  over  the  world,  that  where  God  hath  not 
interposed  to  give  light,  men  have  only  bewildered  themselves  in 
seeking  out  many  inventions,  not  one  of  which  was  worthy  of 
the  object  nor  consistent  with  enlightened  reason,  and  (it  is  well 
worth  your  notice,  because  conclusive  against  the  infidel  claim 
for  the  sufficiency  of  human  reason  in  matters  of  religion)  that 
where  this  faculty  was  most  cultivated  and  had  advanced  the 
farthest  in  other  sciences  among  Heathen  nations,  the  science  of 
religion  was  at  the  lowest  ebb,  and  the  ritual  of  its  worship  pro- 
portionally impure,  bloody,  and  abhorrent. 

In  thus  drawing  your  attention,  my  brethren,  to  the  unspeak- 
able advantage  you  possess  in  the  light  of  life,  and  to  the  sure 
ground  from  thence  on  which  you  may  advance  with  a  firm 
faith  to  the  performance  of  every  religious  duty,  I  wish  it  to  be 
felt  as  a  privilege  for  which  no  adequate  return  can  ever  be 
made — as  a  distinction  from  God  which  must  be  cherished  and 
improved  to  the  high  and  holy  purposes  for  which  it  is  conferred  ; 


ACCESS  TO  GOD  ONLY  THROUGH  CHRIST.       199 

and  that  it  may  be  thus  felt  and  cherished,  mark  the  contrast 
which  my  text  suggests. 

A  Heathen  inquires,  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord  1 
But  there  is  none  to  answer  save  a  senseless  and  bloody  super- 
stition, scorned  even  by  the  clouded  understanding  of  its  own 
ministers.  The  glories  of  the  firmament,  the  grandeur  of  the 
universe,  prompt  him  to  boio  himself  before  the  high  God  their 
Maker ;  but  there  is  no  voice  to  tell  him  with  what  offerings  to 
come  into  his  courts— no  hand  to  point  to  the  propitiation  made 
upon  the  cross  for  human  guilt— no  message  of  love  and  mercy 
displaymg  in  its  highest  exercise  the  heavenly  feeling  of  com- 
passion towards  a  race  of  sinners.  Under  the  silence  of  nature 
as  to  what  man  can  perform  here  or  hope  for  hereafter,  reason 
.becomes  bewildered  in  the  maze  of  conjecture,  and  wanderin- 
farther  and  farther  into  its  own  darkness  dishonours  God  and 
debases  his  fairest  work  with  impurity,  impiety,  and  crime. 

How  different,  my  brethren,  is  the  condition  of  the  same 
bemg  under  the  light  of  the  gospel  !  He,  too,  asks.  Wherewith 
shalllcome  before  the  Lord  ?  and,  lo  !  the  page  of  inspiration 
stands  ready  to  satisfy  his  most  anxious  wish.  Where  the  book 
of  nature  closes  the  book  of  God  takes  up  the  wondrous  tale 
and  by  unveiling  Deity  to  his  adoring  creature,  calls  forth  the 
faculty  of  reason  to  its  noblest  use.  Every  step  in  the  grand 
discovery  gives  increasing  light,  until  God  manifest  in  the  flesh 
provides  for  every  want,  supplies  every  disability,  and  fulfils 
every  wish  which  humanity  can  feel,  or  deplore,  or  Ion-  for 
Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord  1  He  hath  showed  thee 
Oman,  what  is  good;  and  ivhat  doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require 
of  thee  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with 
thy  God  ?  Wherewith  shall  I  bow  myself  before  the  high  God  ^ 
He  hath  showed  thee,  O  Christian,  how  to  render  acceptable 
service.-/  a«^  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,  says  the  Son  of 
God  Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shah  be 
saved.     Repent  and  believe  the  gospel. 

Such  is  the  solid  and  unshaken  foundation  which  the  believer 
occupies  as  the  ground  of  all  his  religious  duties.  To  him  there 
is^  no  uncertainty,  no  conjecture,  no  doubt  in  drawing  near  to 
God.     Light  has  come  into  the  world,  and  he  walks  in  the  light 


200  ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLY    THROUGH    CHRIST. 

A  new  and  living  way  is  opened  to  the  presence  of  God.  Life 
and  immortality  are  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel.  A  fountain  is 
opened  for  sin  and  for  uncleanness.  Grace  is  given  to  renew  his 
nature,  and  eternal  life  promised  to  faith  and  obedience.  These 
are  the  glorious  and  gracious  purchase  of  the  love  of  Christ, 
and  all  these,  my  brethren,  are  prompted  to  your  meditations 
by  my  text.  G  od  grant  that  they  may  stir  you  up  and  strengthen 
you  not  only  to  meditate  but  to  act  under  a  more  lively  sense  of 
his  rich  redeeming  love,  a  deeper  penitence,  and  a  more  active 
faith.  But  let  it  not  be  overlooked,  I  beseech  you,  that  as  all 
you  are  favoured  with  is  the  appointment  and  gift  of  God  for 
your  good,  that  good  is  not  to  be  expected  disjoined  from  the 
means.  Revealed  religion  and  instituted  means  of  grace  are 
not  the  creatures  of  human  caprice  or  convenience  ;  and  what-, 
ever  may  be  conceded  to  honest  ignorance  or  sincere  mistake 
in  religious  duty,  it  is  a  concession  on  the  part  of  man  only,  a 
conjecture  of  human  reason  and  not  a  declaration  of  the  word 
of  God.  And  this  I  say  not  only  to  enforce  the  duty  suggested 
by  the  text,  but  to  caution  you,  my  brethren,  against  the  promi- 
nent delusion  of  being  wise  in  holy  things  above  what  is  written, 
wresting  the  Scriptures  to  your  own  destruction.  As  the  noblest 
work  of  creation,  the  image  of  his  Maker,  man  hath  dominion 
over  all  terrestrial  things.  He  may  construct  systems  of  phi- 
losophy or  policy,  and  alter  and  amend  or  abrogate  them  at  his 
convenience.  He  may  change  the  face  of  nature,  and  improve 
and  beautify  it  to  suit  the  taste  of  an  ever  varying  fancy  ;  but 
religion  is  fenced  about  with  the  sanctity  of  heaven  from  such 
profane  intrusion.  He  touches  the  ark  at  his  eternal  peril — 
he  departs  from  revealed  direction  at  the  risk  of  threatened 
delusion.  Under  every  dispensation  religion  has  come  perfect 
and  complete  from  its  author.  It  admits  of  but  one  improve- 
ment at  the  hand  of  man,  and  that  is,  faith  and  obedience  in  a 
conversation  such  as  becometh  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

HI.  Thirdly,  the  text  forms  a  proper  ground  of  meditation  as 
to  the  constancy  and  devotion  with  which  your  religious  duties 
are  followed. 

As  the  influence  of  religion  upon  the  human  heart  is  progres- 
sive, and  dependent  on  the  care  and  diligence  wherewith  its 


ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLY    THROUGH    CHRIST.  201 

olivine   impressions   are   cultivated,    Christians    should  be  very 
watchful  over  themselves  in  this  respect.     Knowing  as  they  do, 
the  opposition  of  their  fallen  nature,  the  corruption   of  their 
hearts,  and  the  tendency  of  worldly  occupation  to  beget  remiss- 
ness, and  lead  them  insensibly  almost,  to  a  luke-warm  formality, 
frequent  self-examination  is  not  only  one  of  the  most  necessary, 
but  one  of  the  most  profitable  exercises  in  which  the  Christian 
can  engage.     The  person  who  most  frequently  takes  himself  to 
task  as  respects  God,  will  most  frequently  also,  be  drawn  to  the 
duty  of  prayer.       And  the  person  who  most  carefully  tries  his 
religious  condition  by  the  devout  affections  which  his  heart  enter- 
tains, will    be  most  devotional,   that  is,  most  engaged  and  in 
earnest  in  his  religious  duties.     The  forms  of  religion  are  eaaily 
assumed,  its  exterior  is  easily  imitated,  regular  times  for  prayer 
and  reading  the  Scriptures  may  grow  into  a  habit,  the  interruption 
of  which  will  cause  uneasiness;  attendance  upon  public  worship 
v/ith  satisfaction,  and  increase  of  knowledge  in  the  doctrines  and 
mysteries  of  religion  may  proceed  from  the  force  of  education, 
and  the  influence  of  particular  society.     These  are  all  good  in 
themselves,   and  God  forbid  that  I  should  say  a  word  to  impair 
their  value.   But  they  may  all  exist,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  they 
may  often  be  found  where  the   power  of  religion  is  unfelt  and 
unknown.     Against  this  dangerous,  I  had  almost  said  hopeless 
condition,  my  text  forms  an  excellent  safe-guard,  because  it 
chains  down  the  mind  to  the  proper  preparation  for  religious 
duty,  whether  in  private  or  public,   in  the  solemn  thought,   that 
the  act  itself  is  an  interview  with  God,  an  approach  of  the  worth- 
less, sinful  creature  to  the  great  and  glorious  Creator ;  an  appli- 
cation of  the  sinner  to  his  Saviour,  of  the  suppliant  to  his  Jud^-e. 
Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and  how  myself  before 
the  high  God  I  What  train  of  thought  my  brethren,  better  fitted 
to  solemnize   the  mind,   to  engage  the  spirit,  to  fill  the  heart 
with  devotional  feelings  when  habitually  entertained  ?     What 
sentiment  better  fitted  to  prompt  us  to  frequent  application  to 
God,  than  the  combined  feeling  of  want  and  supply  contained 
in  this  meditation  1    And  what  feeling  so  calculated  to  elevate 
the  soul,  as  the  contemplation  of  the  rich  provision  which  God 
hath  made,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  wants  of  the 
Vol.  II.— 26 


202       ACCESS  TO  GOD  ONLY  THROUGH  CHRIST. 

Christian  1  But  these,  to  he  felt,  must  be  seriously  dwelt  upon 
in  our  meditations — must  be  contrasted  with  the  darkness,  doubt 
and  uncertainty,  which  their  privation  would  occasion,  and  must 
be  drawn  forth  into  active  operation,  by  applying  them  to  the 
practical  duties  of  religion. 

With  this  inquiry  before  the  mind  the  heart  v/ill  be  serious, 
and  seriousness  on  the  subject  of  religion  is  the  parent  of  devo- 
tion. But  without  this  quickening  principle  the  whole  round  of 
religion  may  be  followed  out,  yet  all  be  without  profit,  without 
any  of  that  deep  and  heartfelt  enjoyment  which  follows  the 
restoration  of  a  lost  hope,  and  accompanies  that  sure  trust  and 
confidence  in  the  promises  of  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  which  is  the  anchor  of  the  soul  to  the  humble  believer. 
A  mind  truly  serious,  truly  in  earnest  on  the  subject  of  eternity, 
will  not  be  put  off  with  the  forms  and  speculations  of  religion. 
It  cannot  subsist  on  such  unsubstantial  nourishment.  It  longs 
for  more  of  God  than  it  has  yet  attained,  nor  can  it  be  satisfied 
with  past  experiences  of  the  divine  goodness.  Hence,  constancy 
in  religious  duties  springs  from  the  desire  of  religious  attainment. 
The  person  who,  like  David,  is  athirst  for  God,  will  consider 
every  opportunity  of  approaching  him  as  a  privilege.  His 
Sabbaths  will  not  be  a  weariness,  nor  his  worship  tedious  and 
tiresome.  Private  devotion  will  not  be  interrupted,  either  for 
the  fear  or  the  praise  of  men,  nor  yet  will  it  be  intruded  with 
Pharisaical  ostentation.  The  Bible  will  not  be  laid  in  sight 
only,  but  will  be  studied,  and  its  precepts  inscribed  on  the  heart 
and  practised  in  the  life.  It  will  be  the  man  of  his  counsel  to 
the  Christian,  his  study  in  the  day,  and  his  meditation  in  the 
night  watches. 

From  the  condition  of  man,  and  from  the  nature  and  design 
of  revealed  religion,  constancy,  continuance,  perseverance  in 
religious  duty,  is  indispensable,  my  brethren.  Without  this  there 
can  be  no  progress,  no  growth  in  grace,  no  attainment  in  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit  ;  and  without  improvement,  without  increase 
there  can  be  no  reward.  Religion  is  not  an  impulse  upon  the 
mind,  once  for  all,  as  too  many  seem  to  think.  But  it  is  a 
measure  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  commences  with  serious 
thought,  grows  up  under  devout  meditation,  and  is  matured  by 


ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLY    THROUGH    CHRIST.  203 

constancy  in  religious  duty.  And  did  we  but  consider  that  it  is 
an  exotic,  a  plant  of  heavenly  growth,  transplanted  into  an 
ungenial  soil,  which  can  live,  and  grow,  and  become  fruitful 
only  through  constant  care  and  diligent  cultivation,  dependent  for 
efTect  on  the  fostering  influence  of  God's  blessing,  more  earnest- 
ness would  be  manifested,  more  joy  and  peace  in  believing  be 
experienced,  and  multitudes  who  now  stand  aloof  from  the 
gospel  would  be  encouraged  to  strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate.  But  the  coldness  of  Christians  causes  the  decline  of 
religion  in  the  world.  As  they  appear  to  enjoy  but  little,  others 
are  not  stimulated  to  seek  the  pearl  of  great  price,  and  not  a 
few  are  led  to  doubt  whether  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ 
be  preferable  to  the  morality  of  the  world.  This  is  a  reproach 
and  an  injury,  my  brethren,  which  Christians  are  bound  to 
remove  from  their  holy  profession,  and  nothing  will  contribute 
so  speedily  and  effectually  to  this  happy  end  as  manifesting  that 
they  are  themselves  in  earnest,  by  the  constancy  and  fervour 
with  which  they  press  towards  the  mark,  for  the  prize  of  their 
high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 

My  text  leads  to  the  inquiry — 

IV.  Fourthly,  as  to  the  efi'ect  produced  on  the  heart  and  on 
the  life  by  religious  duties  performed. 

As  the  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit,  so  is  the  Christian  known 
by  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  in  the  conversation  of  his  life  ;  and 
where  there  is  care  to  learn  and  diligence  to  put  in  practice 
the  precepts  of  the  gospel,  those  fruits  will  be  brought  forth,  in 
some  thirty,  in  some  sixty,  and  in  some  an  hundred  fold,  accord- 
ing to  the  various  conditions  and  capacities  which  the  providence 
of  Almighty  God  apportions  to  his  creatures. 

Whether,  therefore,  our  religion  be  in  word  merely,  or  in 
power,  must  be  determined  by  bringing  both  the  inward  and  the 
outward  man  to  the  standard  given  us  in  the  word  of  God  ;  and 
as  the  person  who  resorts  most  frequently  to  this  investigation 
will  be  better  acquainted  with  himself,  and  with  the  duties  which 
God  requires  of  him  as  a  redeemed  sinner,  than  the  person  who 
either  altogether  neglects  or  carelessly  performs  it,  so  will  the 
effect  surely  be  in  proportion.  God  hath  set  forth  this  principle 
in  his  holy  word,  as  the  rule  by  which  he  dispenses  the  blessing 


204       ACCESS  TO  GOD  ONLY  THROUGH  CHRIST. 

of  his  grace  in  the  present  life,  and  his  rewards  in  the  Hfe  that  is 
to  come,  idsk  and  ye  shall  receive ;  seek  and  ye  shall  find ;  knock 
and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you.  To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given. 
He  thatfolloweth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the 
light  of  life.  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death  and  I  will  give  thee  a 
crown  of  life.  On  the  constancy  and  seriousness,  then,  with 
which  our  religious  course  is  pursued,  will  depend  our  advance- 
ment in  the  divine  life,  our  comfort  in  our  own  feelings,  and  our 
place  in  eternity  : — consequences,  my  brethren,  which  cannot 
be  lightly  estimated,  and  which  ought  to  ensure  that  deep  and 
earnest  entry  into  the  temper  of  our  own  hearts,  that  honest 
scrutiny  into  the  practice  of  our  lives  which  shall  recover  us  to 
a  more  unreserved  surrender  of  ourselves  to  God,  a  more 
marked  separation  from  the  vanities  and  follies  of  the  world,  a 
more  constant  pursuit  of  our  private  and  public  opportunities  of 
drawing  near  to  him  in  meditation  and  prayer,  and  as  the 
blessed  effect,  a  more  lively  enjoyment  of  the  cheering  hope 
which  his  promises  convey  to  the  heart  that  trusts  in  them. 

Professors  of  religion  are  much  in  the  habit  of  looking  to  their 
comfort,  and  certainly,  the  religion  which  affords  no  actual 
consolation  to  its  professors,  cannot  be  worthy  of  much  sacri- 
fice. Professing  Christians,  also,  are  much  in  the  habit  of  com- 
plaining of  desertion  and  discomfort  under  the  hidings  of  God's 
face  from  them,  and  certainly,  the  religion  which  presents  its 
enjoyments  equally  to  the  diligent  and  the  slothful,  to  the  stead- 
fast and  to  the  unstable  professor  of  its  hope,  would  be  still  less 
worthy  of  its  author  and  of  our  exertions.  But  let  us  not 
deceive  ourselves,  my  brethren,  either  by  expecting  too  much, 
or  by  refusing  what  we  may  conceive  to  be  too  little  ;  neither 
let  us  attempt  to  force  comfort  from  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
thereby  be  deceived  into  assuming  what  we  are  not  entitled  to, 
or  what  he  sees  fit  to  withhold.  The  only  true  and  safe  ground 
on  which  to  expect  the  comforts  of  revealed  religion,  is  the 
performance  of  commanded  duty.  Let  us  do  this  with  fervour 
and  constancy,  and,  as  God  is  true,  the  effect  will  follow  ;  let  us 
be  more  intent  upon  our  work  than  upon  our  daily  wages,  and  if 
our  comforts  are  withheld  let  us  not  charge  God  foolishly,  let 
us  rather  fear  that  the  work  has  not  been  well  done,  that  it  may 


ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLY    THROUGH    CHRIST.  205 

gtir  us  up  to  greater  diligence  ;  above  all  let  us  never  despair, 
but  let  patience  have  her  perfect  loork,  for  in  due  time  we  shall  reap 
if  ice  faint  not. 

Thus  profitably  may  the  meditations  to  be  drawn  from  my  text 
be  applied  by  Christians.  It  is  indeed  but  an  outline  which  1 
have  given,  but  one  which,  I  trust,  my  brethren,  you  will  endea- 
vour to  fill  up  with  the  sincerity  of  purpose  which  its  importance 
calls  for. 

I  will,  therefore, 

Conclude  with  a  few  words,  by  way  of  practical  improvement, 
both  to  Christians  and  others. 

Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and  bow  myself  before 
the  high  God. 

Apt  and  proper  as  this  sentiment  is  to  precede  every  act  of 
religious  worship,  by  "vvhat  proportion  of  those  now  present  was 
it  entertained  previous  to  coming  up  to  the  house  of  GodI  My 
hearers  you  can  answer,  and  as  that  answer  shall  be,  let  the  re- 
proof or  the  acquittal  follow  ;  but,  in  either  case,  let  it  press 
upon  your  hearts  the  propriety,  the  advantage,  yea,  the  necessity, 
that  the  rich  provision  God  hath  made  for  your  salvation,  should 
be  the  subject  of  serious  thought  and  active  improvement.  My 
dear  friends,  this  lies  at  the  very  threshold  of  any  benefit  from  the 
gospel.  God  is  revealed  that  he  may  be  sought  unto  by  men  ; 
and  how  he  is  to  be  approached  without  knowing  wherewith  to 
come  before  him,  or  how  this  is  to  be  known  but  from  himself 
through  his  word,  passes  my  understanding.  You  may,  indeed, 
say  that  you  know  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  gospel.  True  ; 
and  so  much  the  sorer  your  condenmation,  if  you  shall  continue 
to  slight  its  gracious  invitation.  But  you  must  also  know,  that 
revealed  religion  is  not  a  system  of  abstract,  speculative  truth, 
but  of  practical  duty.  Its  rewards  are  not  proposed  to  know- 
ledge as  such,  but  to  knowledge  as  applied  and  improved  to  its 
proper  end.  Ponder,  therefore,  in  your  hearts,  the  parable  of 
the  talents,  and  consider  carefully  the  case  of  the  unprofitable 
servant,  lest  it  shall  be  said  to  you  also,  and  when  you  shall 
have  nought  to  answer,  out  of  thine  own  mouth  will  I  judge  thee, 
thou  mcked  servant. 


20Q  ACCESS    TO    GOD    ONLY    THROUGH    CHRIST. 

Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and  how  myself  before 
the  high  God  ? 

The  practical  improvement  of  these  words,  and  of  what  I  have 
found  to  say  upon  them,  is  founded  on  their  connexion  with 
what,  I  trust,  will  be  the  occupation  of  the  ensuing  week, 
my  brethren.  The  solemn  events  in  our  Redeemer's  history 
which  it  is  specially  appropriated  to  celebrate,  ought  to  be 
marked  with  the  deepest  interest  by  his  disciples.  Jesus  Christ, 
and  him  crucified  for  us,  is  an  affecting  theme  to  the  heart  of 
the  believer,  and  it  embraces  a  wide  field  for  the  range  of  devout 
and  profitable  meditation.  But  in  nothing  is  it  more  compre- 
hensive than  in  its  connexion  with  our  drawing  near  to  God. 
Without  his  interposition  we  can  neither  begin,  nor  continue,  nor 
end.  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord  1  The  answer  is,  JVo 
man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me.  Without  me  ye  can  do 
nothing.  Wherewith  shall  I  bow  myself  before  the  high  God  1  The 
answer  is.  Through  Him  we  have  access  by  one  Spirit  to  the 
Father^  and  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  his  Son,  cleanseth  us 
from  all  sin.  What  shall  we  do  that  we  might  work  the  works  of 
God  1  The  answer  is.  This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  in 
him  whom  he  hath  sent.  What  shall  we  do  that  we  may  inherit 
eternal  life  ?  The  answer  is.  Whoso  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh 
my  blood  hath  eternal  life,  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day. 

Take  with  you,  then,  my  brethren,  into  the  retirement  of  your 
Tcligious  medita'ions  and  exercises,  this  deep  and  impressive 
inquiry.  Dwell  u])on  it  in  the  full  extent  of  its  connexion 
with  your  religious  comfort  and  religious  hope,  and  may  God 
own  his  word  and  increase  its  power  in  your  hearts,  that  your 
light  may  shine  before  men,  to  the  glory  of  his  name  and  the 
a.dvancement  of  his  kingdom.     Amen. 


SERMON  XVIII. 

Christ's  call  to  repeatance. 

Luke  v.  32. 
"  I  came  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  rei/entance." 

That  our  duties  should,  at  the  same  time,  be  favours  and 
privileges,  is  the  peculiar  characteristic  of  the  gospel,  my  breth- 
ren ;  and  that  even  those  duties  which  carry  the  appearance  of 
harshness  and  severity  in  their  appointment  and  exercise,  should 
be  of  this  description,  is  a  most  convincing  proof,  when  duly 
considered,  of  that  wisdom,  mercy,  and  love,  which  contrived 
and  fulfilled  the  wondrous  plan  whereby  the  perfections  of  God 
and  the  imperfections  of  fallen  man  are  made  to  harmonize,  and 
the  operations  of  divine  grace  reconciled  with  the  free  agency 
of  accountable  beings. 

In  no  part  of  our  religious  duty  is  this  more  evident  than  in 
that  which  forms  the  subject  matter  of  my  text.  Until  considered, 
applied,  and  exercised,  it  presents  a  most  forbidding  aspect  ; 
we  associate  whatever  is  gloomy  and  severe  to  our  imaginations 
with  the  very  idea  of  repentance,  and  dread  the  thought  of  even 
attempting  to  enter  upon  it  as  a  duty.  But  this  mistaken  view 
of  the  subject  does  not  arise  from  the  duty  itself,  but  from  the 
preference  of  that  of  which  we  are  called  upon  to  repent;  it  is 
the  love  of  sin  in  some  of  its  almost  innumerable  deceits  which 
is  at  the  bottom  of  this  reluctance,  and  hence  it  is,  that  whatever 
the  enemy  of  our  souls  or  our  own  false  hearts  can  suggest 
against  it  is  greedily  listened  to. 

Yet,  beyond  any  dispute  it  is  a  privilege  conferred  upon  the 
sinner,  and  of  the  highest  kind  ;  to  be  permitted  to  repent  is 
a  favour  which  he  could  not  even  ask ;  far  less  to  have  his 
repentance  accepted  and  his  sin  forgiven,  to  have  his  heart  dis- 
posed by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  listen  to  the  grounds,  the  motives, 
the  necessity  of  repentance,  and  his  natural  reluctance  and  even 


208  Christ's  call  to  repentance. 

inability  to  enter  upon  it,  removed  and  supplied  by  divine  grace  : 
as  it  also  is  a  privilege  and  advantage  of  no  common  charac- 
ter that  what  is  so  essential  to  all  religious  attainments,  should 
be  pressed  upon  the  attention  by  the  preaching  of  the  gospel, 
should  be  set  forth  as  the  first  step  in  the  divine  life,  the  unalter- 
able, and,  at  the  same  time,  wise  and  merciful  appointment  of 
God  to  regain  his  favour.  I  trust,  therefore,  it  will  be  helpful 
to  all  present  to  consider,  more  at  length,  the  particular  purpose 
mentioned  by  our  Lord  in  my  text — /  came  not  to  call  the  right- 
eous, but  sinners  to  repentance. 

In  discoursing  on  these  words  on  the  present  occasion  and  to 
illustrate  the  text,  I  shall  inquire. 

First,  whom  our  Lord  means  by  the  word  righteous. 

Secondly,  whom  by  the  word  sinners. 

Thirdly,  what  he  means  by  repentance. 

Fourthly,  what  by  calling  sinners  to  repentance.  And 
shall,  then, 

Conclude  with  an  application  of  the  whole. 

L  First,  I  am  to  inquire  what  description  of  persons  our 
Lord  here  calls  the  righteous. 

As  it  is  the  clear  and  express  condition  of  the  gospel,  and  the 
very  foundation  on  which  its  grace  and  mercy  rest,  that,  in  the 
view  of  unspotted  purity  and  holiness,  none  such  are  to  be  found 
in  this  fallen  world,  our  Lord  cannot  be  supposed  to  speak  of 
persons  righteous  in  this  sense ;  for  it  is  written.  There  is  not  a 
just  man  upon  earth  that  doeth  good  and  sinneth  not.  There  is 
none  righteous,  no  not  one.  But  though  not  in  the  strict  and  legal 
sense,  yet  in  an  evangelical  sense,  to  which,  in  multiplied  pas- 
sages of  Scripture,  the  phrase  is  adapted,  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion but  that  there  were  many  righteous  persons  upon  earth  at 
that  time.  In  every  age  of  the  world  and  under  every  dispensa- 
tion of  religion,  God  hath  always  had  a  people  who  feared  and 
honoured  his  holy  name,  and  served  him  in  faithfulness  and 
truth  according  to  the  light  afforded  them.  Of  this  we  have 
many  examples  both  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  such  as 
Enoch  and  Noah  before  the  flood.  Job,  Melchizedek,  Abraham, 
and  Lot  after  it,  Moses,  Samuel,  and  the  prophets  under  the 
law,  together  with  those  in  our  Saviour's  day  who  are  expressly 


Christ's  call  to  repentance.  209 

mentioned  as  just  and  righteous  persons,  such  as  Zacharias 
and  Elizabeth,  Simeon  and  Anna,  Joseph  and  Mary  the  mother 
of  our  Lord,  with  Nathaniel  and  many  others  whose  names  are 
not  mentioned  ;  all  of  whom,  as  they  feared  God  and  wrought 
righteousness,  he  was  pleased,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  new 
covenant,  to  accept  of  as  righteous  through  Christ,  though  not 
strictly  so  in  themselves.  Such  persons  as  these,  therefore, 
having  by  repentance  and  faith  tied  to  the  refuge  of  their  souls 
in  God's  revealed  method  of  mercy  for  them,  needed  not  to  be 
called  to  it  again. 

Some  have  supposed  that  our  Lord  on  this  occasion  spake 
ironically,  in  derision  of  the  Pharisees,  who  counted  that  they 
were  righteous  and  despised  others,  and  consequently  would 
not  listen  to  a  call  to  repentance.  But  it  appears  to  me  that 
the  grave  and  dignified  nature  of  our  Lord's  otSce,  with  the 
importance  of  every  word  he  spake,  forbids  a  resort  to  this  con- 
struction. Neither  is  it  necessary  ;  for  we  have  only  to  advert  to 
similar  expressions  to  understand  fully  his  meaning.  Thus,  in  the 
case  of  the  Syro-Phenician  woman,  our  Saviour  says,  /  amnot  sent 
but  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel;  where  it  is  evidently  the 
meaning  that  he  was  sent  to  them  in  the  first  place  ;  that  his  per- 
sonal ministry  was  to  he  confined  to  the  nation  of  the  Jews  ;  that 
the  gospel  was  first  to  be  preached  to  them,  while  nevertheless 
his  name  was  to  be  for  salvation  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  So 
in  the  case  before  us,  when  reproached  by  the  conceited  and 
self-righteous  Pharisees  for  associating  with  publicans  and  sin- 
ners, he  justified  himself  and  reproved  them  in  the  words  of  my 
text.  As  if  he  had  said.  The  purpose  for  which  I  am  come  into 
the  world  is  to  reform  and  reclaim  such  as  these,  therefore  I 
associate  with  them.  As  it  is  the  sick  only  who  have  need  of  a 
physician,  so  it  is  to  sinners  that  a  call  to  repentance  should  be 
most  earnestly  addressed.  The  righteous  stand  not  in  such 
pressing  or  immediate  need  of  my  help,  therefore  I  am  not  come 
so  expressly  to  call  them,  but  sinners,  to  repentance.  Hence 
we  are  taught  to  consider  repentance  in  two  senses — one,  in 
which  the  first  awakenings  of  the  sinner  are  stirred  up  to  a  sin- 
cere and  godly  sorrow  for  sin,  and  to  conversion  from  its  prac- 
tice to  a  new  lile  ;  the  other,  in  which  the  believer  is  continually 
Vol.  1L--27 


210  Christ's  call  to  repentance. 

exercised  under  a  sense  of  his  many  failures  and  short  comings 
in  his  best  duties,  and  of  the  mercy  and  love  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus  manifested  towards  him.  These,  as  they,  are  totally  dif- 
ferent in  nature  and  degree,  are  to  be  carefully  distinguished  by 
us,  that  this  primary  and  continual  duty  may  be  pressed  accord- 
ing to  its  true  and  actual  necessity  upon  each  description  of  our 
hearers.  Without  this  discrimination  confusion  of  mind  is  too 
often  the  consequence,  and,  ultimately,  rejection  of  saving  truth. 

II.  Secondly,  let  us  inquire  whom  doth  our  Saviour  here 
mean  by  the  term  sinners. 

It  must  be  evident,  I  think,  both  from  the  reason  of  the  thing 
and  the  opposition  of  the  two  words  in  the  text,  that  our  Lord 
here  means,  in  the  first  or  chief  place,  open,  outbreaking 
persons  who  were  living  in  commission  of  known  sin — adulter- 
ers, fornicators,  drunkards,  profane  swearers,  thieves,  liars, 
extortioners,  and  such  like.  These,  as  standing  in  the  most 
open  and  imminent  danger  and  in  the  most  pressing  need, 
engaged  his  most  earnest  sympathy  and  compassion  for  their 
miserable  condition.  Next,  the  more  orderly  and  decent  part 
of  the  community,  who  were  nevertheless  equally  strangers  to 
God  and  themselves  and  equally  regardless  of  the  duties  and 
ordinances  of  religion,  living  without  God  in  the  world ;  and, 
lastly,  the  religious  part  of  the  community  as  having  much  to 
perfect  and  complete,  even  in  an  evangelical  sense  of  repent- 
ance and  amendment  of  life. 

To  these  three  classes  the  term  sinners  will  apply  in  different 
senses,  as  will  also  the  nature  and  degree  of  that  repentance  to 
which  they  are  called. 

Of  the  first  class  there  can  be  no  dispute.  They  must  repent 
and  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance,  or  perish  for  ever. 

Of  the  second  there  is  more  dispute,  though  the  certainty  is 
equally  clear.  The  dispute,  however,  is  with  themselves  and 
at  their  own  peril,  not  with  the  appointments  of  God.  Like  the 
Pharisees  of  old,  they  may  count  that  they  are  righteous,  and 
look  down  with  scorn  upon  the  poor  reprobate  outcasts  of 
society;  but  all  the  while  they  are  just  as  far  from  God,  as  much 
unknown  to  any  act  of  submission  to  his  revealed  will,  as  dis- 
tant from  the  ordinances  and  public  duties  of  religion  as  the 


Christ's  call  to  repentance.  211 

veriest  profligate  can  be,  with  this  most  offensive  addition  to  their 
guilt,  that  they  justify  themselves  and  make  void  and  of  none 
effect  the  wise  and  merciful  appointments  of  God  to  save  them. 

Of  the  third  class  there  is  not  one  entitled  to  the  name  of 
religious  who  does  not  take  to  him  and  herself  in  the  true  and 
genuine  sense,  the  appellation  of  sinner,  and  who  feels  not  both 
the  duty  and  the  privilege  of  that  repentance  to  which  they  are 
called. 

To  all,  then,  the  appellation  of  sinners,  made  use  of  in  the 
text,  is  found  to  apply ;  while  there  is,  nevertheless,  a  sense  in 
which  it  is  more  specially  to  be  understood,  and  in  that  sense, 
whoever  is  not  righteous  in  the  Scriptural  sense  of  the  word, 
is  a  sinner  who  is  called  to  repentance,  who  is  exhorted  to 
avail  himself  of  this  privilege,  and  thereby  secure  the  salva- 
tion of  his  soul.  For  there  are  but  two  classes  of  persons  in 
the  world,  the  righteous  and  the  wicked ;  in  the  sight  of  God 
there  is  no  middle  or  neutral  ground  between  these  two.  There 
are,  indeed,  degrees  in  sin,  and  consequently  in  guilt ;  but  sin  in 
any  degree  unrepented  of  is  fatal,  for  the  Scripture  saith,  loho- 
soever  shall  keep  the  lohole  laic  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is 
guilty  of  all.  Hence  the  danger  of  allowing  ourselves  in  what 
are  called  little  sins,  of  thinking  lightly  of  and  neglecting  the 
ordinances  of  religion,  of  comforting  ourselves  that  we  are  not 
as  great  sinners  as  some  others  are.  For,  take  notice,  my  hear- 
ers, we  may  be  as  notorious  and  open  sinners  in  the  sight  of 
God  as  the  most  vicious  profligates  are  in  our  sight ;  so  that  if 
a  man  perform  ever  so  many  duties,  if  there  be  any  which  he 
doth  not  perform,  or  if  he  avoid  ever  so  many  sins,  and  yet 
there  be  any  he  doth  not  avoid,  he  is  still  a  sinner,  who,  with- 
out repentance,  must  perish  for  ever. 

I  come  now,  in  the 

III.  Third  place,  to  inquire  what  is  meant  by  repentance. 

The  original  and  direct  meaning  of  the  word  is  an  after 
thought,  a  reaction  of  the  mind,  and  may  accordingly  apply  to 
any  change  of  mind  whatever,  but  in  the  case  before  us  is  to  be 
considered  exclusively  as  respects  things  moral  and  spiritual. 

In  this  connexion,  then,  it  will  mean  such  an  after  thought 
as  produces  a  change  of  mind  or  disposition  on  the  serious  sub- 


212  Christ's  call  to  repentance. 

jects  of  God  and  religion.  This  after  thought,  the  result  of 
reflection  and  consideration  impressed  on  the  mind  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  produces  such  a  conviction  in  the  heart  of  the 
guilt  and  danger  of  sin,  as  connnitted  against  the  holiness  and 
the  command  of  God,  as  to  fill  the  sinner  with  fear  and  dismay 
at  the  consequences,  and  with  desire  to  be  delivered  from  its 
power  and  from  its  condemnation.  Hence  arises  that  godly 
sorrow  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures,  which  worketh  repentance 
unto  life,  and  is  opposed  in  the  same  Scriptures  to  the  sorrow 
of  the  world — the  mere  regret  for  the  consequences  of  sin, 
whether  present  or  future,  which  worketh  death.  For  sincere 
and  genuine  sorrov/  for  sin  as  an  offence  against  God  is  always 
accompanied  with  a  change  of  conduct,  or,  as  it  is  expressed  in 
Scripture,  brings  forth  fruits  meet  for  or  answerable  to  true 
repentance,  whereas,  mere  sorrow  for  the  consequences  of  sin 
as  it  has  in  it  no  element  of  godliness — of  either  the  fear  or  the 
love  of  God — produces  no  such  fruits  ;  the  love  of  sin  remains, 
and  wants  but  a  suitable  opportunity  to  be  again  indulged  in. 

Thus  we  see  that  true  repentance  does  not  consist  singly  in 
a  change  of  mind  or  alteration  of  conduct,  but  in  the  union  of 
both,  springing  from  a  religious  motive.  The  true  penitent  does 
not  only  hate  sin,  but  fears  it  and  flees  from  it.  He  does  not 
forsake  some,  say  the  grosser  and  more  open  sins  of  his  life,  but 
all  and  every  sin.  He  does  not  content  himself  with  the  out- 
ward restraint  of  sin,  but  labours  and  strives  for  the  destruction 
of  its  power  in  his  heart.  He  does  not  only  cease  to  do  evil, 
but  he  learns  to  do  well — becomes  earnest,  active,  and  diligent  in 
the  use  and  application  of  those  means  of  grace  which  are  ap- 
pointed in  the  word  of  God,  which  he  once  neglected,  perhaps 
despised.  Behold  he  prayeth,  is  the  mark  by  which  the  angels 
of  God  discern  the  penitent  ;  and  the  penitent  who  prays 
through  the  mediation  of  Jesus  Christ  learns,  sooner  or  later, 
that  the  prayer  of  faith  is  mighty  to  obtain  the  blessing  of  that 
God  who  is  ever  ready  to  receive  humble  and  penitent  sinners 
for  his  dear  Son's  sake  ;  like  the  poor  prodigal  mentioned  in 
the  gospel,  he  coines  to  himself,  he  recovers  his  senses,  he 
remembers  his  father's  house — /  icill  arise  and  go  to  my  father, 
and  will  say  unto  him,  Father,  I  have  sinned  against  heaven  and 


Christ's  call  to  repentance,  213 

before  thee,  and  am  no  more  ivorthy  to  be  called  thy  son.  He  is 
seen  entering  the  house  of  God,  engaging  in  the  worship  of  God, 
walking  with  the  people  of  God  ;  and  the  joy  felt  in  heaven  over 
the  sinner  that  repenteth,  spreads  its  gladsome  feeling  over  the 
Church  on  earth;  every  child  of  God  rejoices  to  see  another 
wanderer  brought  back  to  the  fold  of  Christ — another  immor- 
tal soul  snatched  as  a  brand  from  the  burning. 

Such,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  is  the  true  Scripture  notion 
of  repentance.  Not  merely  a  change  of  conduct,  but  a  revolu- 
tion of  sentiment,  a  renovation  of  heart  in  its  whole  progress, 
wrought  by  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whereby  the 
mind  or  disposition  is  wholly  taken  off  from  sin,  turned  round 
or  converted  to  God,  and  set  to  obey  his  commandments.  This 
is  the  repentance  our  Lord  means  in  the  text,  that  repentance 
to  which  he  calls  sinners  by  the  gospel,  that  repentance  without 
which  there  is  no  hope  for  them,  without  which  they  must 
perish  for  ever. 

IV.  Fourthly,  I  am  to  inquire  what  we  are  to  understand  by 
his  calling  sinners  to  repentance. 

As  sin  originally  separated  us  from  God,  so,  while  persisted 
in,  it  precludes  us  from  all  possible  return  to  his  favour.  It 
must,  therefore,  be  repented  of  and  forsaken.  That  this  might 
be  rendered  both  practicable  and  acceptable,  the  ever  blessed 
Son  of  God  undertook  the  redemption  of  fallen  man,  by  expia- 
ting their  sins  in  his  own  person,  and  thereby  procuring  for 
them  easier  conditions  of  salvation  than  the  rigour  of  the  law 
demanded  or  the  holiness  and  justice  of  God  permitted,  without 
an  adequate  atonement. 

To  this  end,  he  took  our  nature  upon  him,  suffered  death  upon 
the  cross,  and  having  thereby  made  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world,  he  became  the  mediator  of  a  new  covenant,  in 
which,  by  repentance  towards  God,  and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  sinners  might  be  delivered  from  the  curse  and  condem- 
nation of  the  law,  and  restored  to  the  hope  and  the  attainment 
of  eternal  life.  This  is  the  foundation  of  the  gospel,  and  the 
subject  matter  of  those  glad  tidings  of  great  joy,  which  angels 
proclaimed  at  his  birth,  and  which  through  the  mercy  of  God 
have  reached  even  unto  us.     By  our  Lord's  calling  sinners  to 


214  Christ's  call  to  repentance, 

repentance,  then,  we  are  to  understand  his  making  known  to 
them  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  pur- 
chased by  his  blood,  whereof  repentance  is  the  first ;  together 
with  the  invitations,  exhortations,  promises,  and  threatenings  of 
the  gospel,  whereby  he  requires,  persuades,  and  commands 
them,  in  consideration  of  what  he  hath  done  and  suffered  for 
them,  to  forsake  their  sins,  throw  down  the  weapons  of  their 
rebellion,  and  follow  him  in  the  bright  example  of  his  holiness, 
humility,  faith,  and  patience  ;  giving  them  full  assurance,  by  his 
glorious  resurrection  from  the  dead,  that  he  had  fully  accom- 
plished the  mighty  work  of  redemption,  and  opened  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  to  all  believers — that  as  he  hath  redeemed  them 
to  God  by  his  blood,  so  hath  he  also  purchased  gi^ace,  or  renewal  of 
spiritual  power,  lost  by  sin,  to  enable  them  to  fulfil  the  conditions 
required  of  them.  This  is  properly  his  calling  them  to  repent- 
ance ;  and  thus  in  every  gospel  land  are  sinners  called,  by  the 
word  and  Spirit  of  God,  to  forsake  the  foolish,  and  live,  to  turn 
from  the  error  of  their  ways,  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  lay 
hold  on  eternal  life. 

Thus  have  I  laid  before  you,  my  hearers,  the  outline  of  this 
leading  doctrine  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  ;  of  the  persons  to 
whom  it  applies,  and  of  the  authority  by  which  it  is  pressed  upon 
your  attention.  Take  heed,  then,  how  ye  hear,  for  he  that 
despiseth,  despiseth  not  man  but  God.  As  an  ambassador  of 
Christ  I  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God  ; 
I  testify  to  all  present,  that  except  they  repent  they  shall  perish. 

Lastly,  to  apply  what  has  been  said. 

It  is  not  my  province,  generally  speaking,  my  friends,  to  pro- 
nounce who  are  the  righteous,  and  who  the  sinners  ;  but  from 
the  word  of  God,  to  lay  before  men  those  marks  by  which  they 
may  try  themselves  and  their  ways,  and  decide  on  their  true 
condition  in  the  sight  of  God. 

By  what  you  have  this  day  heard,  then,  and  by  what  your 
Bibles  shall  further  teach  you  on  this  and  every  other  subject 
connected  with  your  eternal  salvation,  let  me  counsel  you  to 
examine  whether  you  have  repented  or  no.  Many  are  the  calls 
you  have  had,  not  only  outwardly  by  the  word,  but  inwardly  by 
the  strivings  of  God's  Holy  Spirit  within  you.     To-day,  then, 


Christ's  call  to  repentance.  215 

if  ye  will  hear  his  voice,  hardennot  your  hearts.    Every  neglected 
call  weakens  your  power  and  inclination  to  listen  to  the  next, 
until  you  may  be  left  to  the  hardness  of  an  impenitent  and 
blinded  heart.     Oh,  did  you  but  know  your  danger,  could  you 
but  apprehend  how  much  may  depend  on  this  little  moment,  a 
last  warning,  perhaps,  before  eternity  lays  hold  of  some  poor 
sinner  present,  you  would  not  cast  it  from  you  with  the  neglect 
so  many  exhibit.  But  whether  you  will  hear  or  whether  you  will 
forbear,  I  must  deliver  my  own  soul.     Therefore  I  call  upon 
them  in  the  name  of  Christ,  to  repent  of  their  sins,  to  flee  to 
the  mercy  of  God  revealed  through  Jesus   Christ  for  pardon 
and    salvation,    believing    what  Christ  hath  spoken,  relying 
on  what  he  hath  promised,  and  observing  whatsoever  he  hath 
commanded.      Assuring  every  sinner  present,  that  he  is  able  to 
save  to  the  uttermost  all  who  come  unto  God  by  him,  and  that 
there  is  none  other  name  or  means  under  heaven,  given  among 
men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved,  only  the  name  and  grace  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth.      O,  ask  yourselves  now,  what 
it  will  profit  you  in  the  day  of  wrath  and  revelation  of   the 
righteous  judgment  of  God,  when  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be 
revealed  from  heaven  in  flaming  fire,  taking  vengeance  on  them 
that   know   not  God  and  obey  not   the  gospel — what  will  it 
profit  you,  to  have  enjoyed  all  the  pleasures  of  sin  in  this  life,  at 
the  price  of  eternal  misery  in  the   next  1     Your  most  merciful 
Saviour  now  offers  himself  to  you,  in  the  words  of  peace  and 
love  ;   but  in  that  day  he  will  appear  as  your  inexorable  Judge. 
Repent  ye,  therefore,  and  be  converted,  that  your  sins  may  be  blotted 
out.  Behold  now  is  the  accepted  time,  noiv  is  the  day  of  salvation. 
And  you,  my  brethren,  who  through  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  are  accounted  righteous  before  God,  think  not  that  you 
are  unconcerned  in  this  great  and  universal  duty.     Sinless  per- 
fection is  not  the  attainment  of  this  life,  and  daily  experience 
must  teach  you  how  far  short  you  come  even  of  that  which  you 
know,  and  desire,  and  strive  to  attain  unto.     And  herein  is  con- 
tinual occasion  for  watchfulness,  for  self-abasement,  for  peni- 
tential sorrow,  that  we  receive  so  much  and  return  so  little  to 
the  giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift  to  his  creatures.     Let 
this  sense,  then,  of  the  goodness  of  God  deepen  your  repent- 


216  Christ's  call  to  repentance. 

ance,  strengthen  your  faith,  increase  your  hope,  and  brighten 
your  charity.  Use  seasons  of  retirement  to  enter  deeper  into 
your  own  hearts,  to  mortify  and  cast  out  the  remains  of  the  old 
Adam,  that  the  whole  body  of  sin  may  be  destroyed,  and  the 
hfe  of  faith  perfected  in  you.  Keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of 
God  ;  looking  unto  Jesus  the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith,  ivho 
for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him,  endured  the  cross,  despising  the 
shame,  and  is  set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  where  he  ever 
liveth,  to  make  intercession  for  us^ 


SERMON    XIX. 


HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST. 


Luke  ix.  23. 

"  And  he  said  to  them  all,  If  an}'  man  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and 
take  up  his  cross  daily,  and  follow  me." 

It  is  worthy  of  particular  notice,  my  brethren,  and  deserves  to 
be  carefully  considered  by  every  Christian,  that  the  leHgion  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  made  its  way  in  the  world 
and  prevailed  over  the  various  forms  of  Heathen  superstition, 
and  the  corrupt  prejudices  of  human  natute,  not  only  without 
any  politic  accommodation  of  its  holy  principles  to  the  esta- 
blished notions,  habits  of  thinking,  customs  and  manners  of  the 
times,  but  with  the  most  uncompromising  rejection  and  condemn- 
ation as  sinful  of  all  that  is  most  dear  and  pleasant  to  the  natural 
man,  most  cherished  and  followed  by  the  spirit  of  the  world. 
That  under  such  circumstances  it  should  have  succeeded,  forms 
a  very  conclusive  argument  in  favour  of  the  divine  original  of 
Christianity  and  of  its  author.  But  when  to  this  circumstance 
we  add  the  confirmation  derived  from  the  unpaialelled  fact,  that 
this  religion  made  its  way  to  the  hearts  of  men,  and  accomplish- 
ed its  triumphs  over  the  darkness  and  lewdness  of  the  times, 
under  the  clear  and  explicit  disclosure,  that  poverty,  reproach, 
and  contempt,  that  suffering  in  all  its  shapes,  even  to  bonds, 
imprisonment,  and  death,  was  the  portion  which  those  who  first 
embraced  it  were  to  expect  in  the  present  life,  the  conviction  is 
irresistable,  that  divine  power  alone  could  have  brought  this 
to  pass. 

As  from  these  facts  we  derive  an  unanswerable  argument 
for  the  divine  origin  and  obligation  of  the  religion  we  profess,  so 
may  we  also  derive  from  it,  my  brethren,  a  sure  and  impartial 
standard  whereby  to  determine  our  personal  religion.  For  it  is 
the  same  world,  out  of  which  the  first  Christians  were  called,  that 

Vol.  II.— 28 


218 


HOW    TO    COMK    TO    CHRIST. 


the  gospel  invites  us  to  come  out  from.  The  same  corrupt  nature, 
the  same  vicious  propensities,  the  same  preference  of  sensual 
delights,  and  the  same  determination  of  the  affections  towards 
earthly  things,  so  visible  in  them,  is  equally  present  in  us.  The 
gross  darkness  of  Heathen  ignorance,  and  the  disgusting  impu- 
rity of  Heathen  manners,  differ  only  in  degree  from  the  instruct- 
ed and  practical  infidelity,  and  the  more  refined  dissoluteness  of 
modern  vice  in  Christian  lands.  In  kind  they  are  the  same,  and 
in  the  sight  of  God,  perhaps,  more  hateful  in  us  than  in  them  ; 
the  same  means,  also,  provided  for  their  instruction,  renewal, 
and  sanctification,  are  afforded  to  us,  and  the  same  fruit  unto 
holiness  is  unalterably  required.  As  we  are  conformed  to  or 
separated  from  the  vicious  customs  of  the  world  in  our  day,  as 
our  affections  are  set  upon  things  above,  or  tied  down  to  the  farms 
and  the  merchandise,  the  professions  and  the  pleasures  of  the 
world,  as  we  make  open  acknowledgment  of  the  Christian  faith, 
and  live  answerable  to  the  requirements  of  the  gospel,  so  is  our 
spiritual  condition,  my  hearers.  The  command,  love  not  the 
world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world,  is  still  in  force  to 
us  as  to  the  first  Christians ;  and  it  is  equally  important  to  all 
present  that  the  inquiry  should  be  made,  whether  they  are  in 
such  wise  friends  of  the  world,  as  to  be  the  enemies  of  God  ;  or 
have  so  learnt  to  use  it  as  those  who  know  that  this  world 
passeth  away,  and  that  in  heaven  only  they  have  a  better 
country — a  more  enduring  substance. 

The  inquiry,  whether  we  are  truly  religious  or  not,  is  only 
another  form  of  speech  for  the  inquiry  whether  we  are  in  the 
favour  of  God  or  exposed  to  his  wrath.  An  inquiry,  my  dear 
friends,  which  never  can  be  indifferent  to  an  immortal  being, 
under  the  uncertainties  of  the  present  life,  an  inquiry  to  which 
it  is  my  duty  to  call  your  attention,  and  for  the  determination  of 
which,  satisfactorily,  you  are  furnished  in  the  meditations  sug- 
gested by  my  text.  Have  you  come  to  Christ  1  Have  you 
denied  yourself  and  taken  up  the  cross  1  Are  you  followers  of 
Jesus,  or  followers  of  the  world?  These  are  questions  which 
naturally  grow  out  of  this  very  solemn  declaration  of  our  Lord  ; 
and  that  you  may  be  enabled  to  answer  them  understandingly 
and  profitably,  I  will  endeavour  to  explain  and  enforce  the  par- 


HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST,  219 

ticular  points  of  Christian  duty  contained  in  the  text,  in  the 
order  in  which  they  there  stand. 

t^nd  he  said  to  them  all,  If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let  him 
deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  andfoUoio  me. 

I.  First  what  are  we  to  understand  by  the  words,  if  any  man 
will  come  after  me. 

That  these  words  refer  to  the  obligation  all  are  under  to 
embrace  the  gospel  to  whom  it  is  proposed,  is  too  evident  to 
require  any  proof.  As  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners,  to  instruct  them  in  the  will  of  God,  and 
show  them  the  way  of  life  and  happiness  eternal,  those  who 
believed  his  divine  authority  and  received  his  doctrine,  were 
denominated  his  disciples  or  followers :  to  these  he  imparted 
his  instructions  in  a  more  clear  and  familiar  manner  than  to  the 
multitudes  who  flocked  to  hear  his  preaching  and  see  the  mira- 
cles which  he  wrought,  and  to  these  he  addressed  those  precious 
promises  which  are  in  a  pecuhar  sense  the  property  of  those 
who  are  the  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus.  Unto 
you  it  is  given  to  know  the  mystery  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  but 
unto  them  that  are  icithout  all  these  things  are  done  in  parables. 
Whoso  heareth  my  words  and  believeth  on  him  that  sent  me,  hath 
eternal  life,  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day.  Whosoever  shall 
confess  me  before  men,  him  ivill  I  also  confess  before  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven.  If  a  man  love  me  he  loill  keep  my  ivords,  and 
my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  him  and  make  our 
abode  with  him.  Now,  while  it  is  undeniable  that  these  are 
inducements  sufficient  to  engage  the  attention  of  every  rational 
being,  it  is  no  less  clear  that,  to  obtain  these  advantages,  we 
must  comply  with  the  conditions  on  which  they  are  offered,  we 
must  become  the  disciples  or  followers  of  Christ,  we  must 
learn  of  him,  we  must  study  his  doctrine,  obey  his  precepts,  and 
follow  his  example. 

The  immediate  reflection,  therefore,  presented  to  all  present 
by  this  clause  of  my  text,  is  this ;  Am  I  a  disciple  of  Jesus 
Christ  1  am  I  a  professor  of  his  name  and  religion  before  the 
world  1  am  I  in  communion  with  his  Church  upon  earth  1  am  I 
striving  to  attain  his  promises  1  and  according  as  this  can 
honestly  be  answered  is  there  ground  of  comfort  or  alarm  to 


230  HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST. 

every  one  of  you.  Now,  as  you  can  all  make  answer  with  cer- 
tainty upon  this  point,  so  can  you  understand,  even  by  human 
analogies,  that  where  a  previous  condition  is  required  it  must  be 
performed  in  order  to  reap  the  benefit.  The  invitation  of  the 
gospel,  therefore,  must  be  complied  with  on  your  part  before 
there  can  be  any  hope  of  the  blessings  of  the  gospel.  Come 
unto  me,  says  Christ  to  every  weary,  heavy  laden  sinner,  and 
I  will  give  you  rest.  But  if  they  never  come,  how  shall  they 
obtain  rest  to  their  souls  ?  And  how  can  any  now  come  to 
Christ  but  through  the  ordinances  of  his  Church  ?  You  may 
say,  indeed,  that  you  have  already  come  to  Christ  by  baptism, 
and  so  far  your  advantage  is  great ;  but  do  you  not  know  that 
therein  you  incurred  obligations  which,  if  not  fulfilled,  will  more 
deeply  condemn  you  ]  Have  you,  then,  fulfilled  your  baptismal 
engagements  1  If  not,  v/here  is  the  profit  of  it  unless  you  repent 
and  do  your  first  works,  and  by  a  true  and  lively  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  obtain  the  pardon  of  your  sins,  and  be 
reinstated  in  t\^^at  from  which  you  are  fallen  away.  Surely  no 
reasonable  person  can  suppose  that  the  ordinances  of  religion 
operate  after  the  manner  of  charms  ;  and  yet  the  great  majority 
in  Christian  lands  act  as  if  this  was  the  case,  and  never  seem  to 
apprehend  that  to  be  entitled  to  the  hope  of  the  gospel  we  must 
fulfil  the  conditions  of  the  gospel — must  first  come  to  Christ 
by  an  open  profession  of  his  name  and  religion  before  the  world, 
and  thenceforward  continue  in  his  word,  that  is,  in  obedience 
to  his  commandments — as  the  sole  ground  on  Avhich  spiritual 
attainment  and  eternal  life  is  promised.  Nothing  is  more 
clearly  declared  in  the  gospel  than  this,  that  until  we  are  in 
Christ  by  some  personal  act  which  the  gospel  prescribes  and 
recognizes,  we  have  neither  part  nor  lot  in  the  promises  of  the 
gospel.  Our  entrance  into  the  covenant  of  mercy  and  grace  by 
baptism  in  our  infancy  is  valid  and  effectual  until  forfeited  by 
personal  sin,  and  when  thus  forfeited — as,  alas  !  it  most  com- 
monly is  by  those  who  arrive  at  years  of  discretion,  or  rather,  as 
they  should  be  called,  of  indiscretion — there  is  no  other  resource, 
no  other  refuge  than  open  repentance  and  acknowledgment  of 
sin,  declared  reliance  on  the  blood  of  Christ  as  the  only 
atonement,  renewed  obedience  to  the  law  of  life  in  the  gospel. 


HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST.  221 

with  humble  dependance  on  the  mercy  of  God  for  pardon  and 
acceptance  through  the  merits  and  intercession  of  Jesus 
Christ.  These  God  hath  promised  to  accept  from  the  siimer, 
truly  penitent,  unto  justification  of  hfe,  and  having  accommodated 
his  grace  and  mercy  so  fully  to  our  feeble  condition,  the  con- 
clusion is  inevitable  that  less  than  this  he  will  accept  from  no 
man  who  hears  the  gospel.  And  I  pray  and  intreat  all  those 
who  are  sitting  loose  to  this  the  first  and  indispensable  duty  of 
redeemed  sinners,  to  reflect  upon  their  condition,  to  burst  the 
bonds  of  unbelief,  to  listen  to  the  reason  of  their  own  minds  and 
the  voice  of  their  own  consciences  confirmed  by  the  word  of 
God,  and  pass  the  Rubicon,  the  narrow  and,  I  may  say,  the  only 
obstacle  which  keeps  them  from  the  succour  and  help  of  that 
divine  grace  by  which  only  the  world  can  be  overcome  and 
salvation  accomplished.  If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  lei  him 
deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  andfolloio  me.  But,  my 
dear  hearers,  we  must  first  come  to  Christ  before  we  can  even 
think  of  such  religious  duties  as  are  here  required  of  Christians, 
and  still  more  before  we  can  be  enabled  to  perform  them.  The 
morality  of  the  world  may  go  a  certain  length  in  imitating  the 
fruits  of  true  religion,  and  thereby  add  much  to  the  comfort  and 
accommodation  of  the  present  life.  Nor  is  it  a  light  argument 
for  the  divine  original  of  Christianity  that  the  mere  copy  of  its 
virtues  by  those  who  yet  disown  its  power  should  shed  so  benign 
an  influence  over  the  condition  of  gospel  lands.  But  it  can  go 
no  farther  than  the  boundary  of  time.  The  shadow  of  religion 
passeth  away — the  substance  only  can  endure  the  shock  of  dis- 
solving nature  and  a  burning  world,  and  enter  in  within  that  veil 
where  God  sits  enthroned  in  all  his  glory,  and  where  mansions 
of  everlasting  blessedness  are  prepared  for  those  who  through 
faith  and  patience  inherit  the  promises  of  the  gospel. 

II.  Secondly,  if  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself. 

The  religious  doctrine  and  Christian  duty  of  self-denial  is 
grounded  altogether  on  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  fallen, 
depraved,  condition  of  human  nature.  Was  our  reason  uncloud- 
ed by  depraved  affections,  our  choice  unbiassed  by  a  perverted 
will ;  were  our  faculties  entire  for  the  discernment  of  good  and 
evil,  and  cur  strength  unimpaired  to  resist  temptation ;  there 


222  HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST. 

could  be  no  occasion  for  inculcating  this  dut3^  But,  situated 
as  we  are,  my  brethren,  with  the  love  of  sin  predominant  in  our 
nature,  it  is  not  only  profitable  but  essential,  it  is  not  only  reason- 
able, but  indispensable,  if  we  would  enjoy  the  comforts  of  reli- 
gion in  time,  and  secure  its  reward  in  eternity,  that  we  learn  to 
deny  ourselves.  Yet  who  does  not  feel  that  this  is  the  hard  say- 
ing which  we  are  not  able  to  hear,  the  great  stumbling  block  to 
the  reception  of  the  gospel.  Intuitively,  almost,  we  anticipate 
its  application  to  the  things  that  are  most  pleasant  to  the  natural 
man,  and  dread  to  encounter  the  privations  which  imagination 
is  on  the  alert  to  magnify  beyond  their  due  proportion.  To  cor- 
rect this  propensity,  then,  and  to  place  this  indispensable  duty 
on  its  Scriptural  foundation,  let  us  inquire  what  we  are  to  under- 
stand by  the  self-denial  here  enjoined,  and  that  this  may  be  the 
more  distinct  and  clear  to  your  apprehensions  I  will  consider  it 
both  negatively  and  affirmatively  ;  and. 

First,  religious  self-denial  does  not  consist  in  words  or 
acknowledgments.  The  clearest  views  of  Scripture  doctrine, 
the  most  unqualified  confession  of  our  depraved  and  dependant 
condition,  the  most  forcible  admission  of  the  awful  state  of 
ruin  into  which  sin  hath  sunk  our  nature,  cannot  meet  the  just 
requirements  of  this  duty  ;  and  for  this  plain  reason,  because  the 
duty  is  practical,  whereas  such  acknowledgments  are  as  much 
in  the  reach  of  the  most  selfish  sensualist  as  of  the  most  watchful 
Christian.  And  I  mention  this  because  it  is  now  much  the  fashion 
among  persons  of  religious  profession  to  abound  more  in  expres- 
sions of  self-abasement  than  in  acts  of  self-denial ;  and  because  it  is 
quite  common  for  persons  who  make  no  profession  and  have  no 
concern  with  religion,  to  comfort  themselves  with  the  acknow- 
ledgment that  they  are  poor,  weak,  sinful  creatures,  without  a 
single  effort  to  burst  the  chains  of  sin  and  struggle  into  the 
liberty,  wherewith  Christ  hath  made  them  free. 

Self-denial  does  not  consist  in  a  sour,  morose  temper,  refusing 
either  ourselves  or  others  the  lawful,  thankful  enjoyment  of  al 
the  blessings  conferred  on  us  by  the  good  providence  of  Almighty 
God.  On  the  contrary,  as  God  loveth  the  cheerful  giver,  so 
doth  he  love  a  thankful  receiver  of  his  various  blessings.  To 
use  so  as  not  to  abuse,  to  enjoy  so  as  not  to  forget  the  Giver  of 


HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST.  223 

every  good  and  perfect  gift  to  his  creatures,  is  the  condition  on 
which  they  are  bestowed,  and  within  which  he  giveth  us  all 
things  richly  to  enjoy.  A  different  view  of  the  subject,  equally 
opposite  to  Scripture  and  reason,  has  given  rise  to  all  the  super- 
stition and  debauchery  of  monastic  institutions,  under  the  absurd 
notion  that  the  salvation  of  our  souls  could  best  be  secured  by 
flying  from  the  duties  of  that  station  in  life  which  the  providence 
of  God  had  assigned  us. 

Nor  yet  does  self-denial  consist  in  such  a  neglect  of  the  duties 
belonging  to  our  worldly  condition  as  to  defeat  the  industry  and 
application  due  to  its  lawful  improvement.  A  state  of  trial  must 
ever  be  a  state  of  activity  and  exertion,  variety  of  condition,  also, 
is  a  necessary  part  of  its  composition,  and  this  variety,  in  all  its 
grades,  is  among  the  talents  committed  to  our  trust.  These  are 
all  capable  of  improvement  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of 
our  fellow-creatures,  and,  as  there  can  be  no  improvement  with- 
out increase,  without  an  addition  to  the  original  stock,  care  and 
diligence,  economy  and  industry  in  our  worldly  callings,  are 
religious  duties,  without  which  we  cannot  fulfil  the  obligations  we 
owe  to  God  and  to  our  neighbour. 

Hence,  it  is  just  as  incumbent  on  the  rich  to  exert  a  provident 
care  and  industry,  and  to  avoid  all  extravagance  and  waste  of 
their  worldly  goods  as  it  is  upon  the  poor  to  use  the  same 
means  to  better  their  worldly  condition,  for  both  are  bound  by 
the  law  of  Christian  love  to  be  ready  and  willing  to  distribute 
proportionally  to  the  wants  and  necessities  of  all  around  them. 

Secondly,  self-denial  does  consist  in  relinquishing  every 
thing  that  is  contrary  to  the  divine  command,  or  injurious  to 
our  own  spiritual  welfare.  This  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  term, 
the  practical  operation  of  the  duty,  and  within  this  boundary  it 
must  be  exercised  by  all  who  would  be  considered  followers  of 
Christ.  Hence,  whatever  is  directly  sinful,  or  indirectly  lead- 
ing to  sin,  however  pleasant,  however  apparently  advantageous 
it  may  seem,  is  the  subject  of  this  duty.  The  pleasures  and  the 
practices  of  the  world,  as  they  are  formally  renounced  by  every 
Christian  at  his  baptism,  are  to  be  as  constantly  watched  against  in 
the  exercise  of  self-denial.  The  inordinate  aftections  of  the  mind, 
the  unlawful  gratification  of  the  flesh,  and  the  rebellious  inclina- 


224  HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST. 

tions  of  our  corrupt  wills,  must  all  be  restrained  under  the  salu- 
tary control  of  self-denial.  These  wild  beasts  of  our  fallen 
nature,  if  I  may  so  speak,  must  be  kept  in  their  cage,  and  the 
door  carefully  watched,  for  if  they  once  make  their  escape  it  is 
a  hard  and  a  painful  task  to  bring  them  once  more  into 
subjection. 

Another  branch  of  this  practical  duty  finds  its  profitable  exer- 
cise in  the  regulation  and  control  of  our  understanding.  As 
knowledge  of  divine  things  is  derived  from  divine  communica- 
tion, it  is  a  primary  duty  to  submit  our  rational  faculties  to  the 
wisdom  of  God,  and  receive  loith  meekness  the  engrafted  word 
which  is  able  to  save  our  souls.  Yet  there  is  a  pride,  a  loftiness 
in  the  wisdom  of  the  world,  which  would  measure  the  divine 
mind  by  its  own  puny  standard,  and  look  down  with  contempt 
on  the  simplicity  of  the  gospel ;  which  dares  to  intrude  into  things 
not  seen,  and  speculate  on  the  mysteries  of  God  as  on  some 
branch  of  natural  knowledge.  Against  this  most  unreasonable 
and  ruinous  perversion  of  our  highest  faculty,  self-denial  must 
stand  ever  on  its  guard,  and  this  the  more  resolutely,  as  it  is 
unanswerably  true,  that  in  things  spiritual,  there  is  to  us  no  other 
source  of  knowledge  than  the  divine  word,  as  contained  in  the 
Scriptures  of  our  faith.  These  are  to  us  the  law  and  the  testi- 
mony, and  without  their  supreme  warrant,  there  is  neither  sense 
or  safety  in  any  system  of  faith  and  practice. 

Connected  with  this,  and  very  intimately,  as  experience 
demonstrates,  is  another  danger,  against  which  self-denial  has  to 
exert  all  its  powers  of  opposition  and  mortification,  and  that  is 
self-righteousness  ;  in  other  words,  the  relying  on  the  merit  of 
our  own  works  of  righteousness,  for  acceptance  with  God. 
And  I  connect  it  with  the  pride  of  science,  falsely  so  called, 
because  it  is  the  main  danger  of  the  better  informed  and  more 
moral  part  of  the  community,  who  have  never  felt  the  plague  of 
their  own  hearts,  in  thorough  conviction  of  the  absolute  sinful- 
ness of  their  nature,  and  separation  from  God  ;  who  speculate 
on  the  mystery  of  godliness,  as  a  provision  for  cases  more 
extreme  than  theirs,  and  receive  not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
as  the  Lord  their  righteousness.  And  if  there  is  a  condition 
under  the  light  of  the  gospel,  from  which  hope  of  mercy  is  pre- 


HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST.  225 

eluded,  it  must  be  found  in  that  pride  of  understanding  which 
would  be  wise,  not  only  above,  but  contrary  to,  what  is  written  ; 
which  would  defraud  the  Saviour  of  the  efficacy  of  his  death, 
and  make  that  eternal  life  which  he  has  purchased  for  sinners, 
the  reward  of  debt,  and  not  of  grace. 

Yet,  my  brethren,  it  is  a  temptation,  however  blasphemous, 
which  we  are  all  prone  to  entertain  in  some  of  its  multifarious 
deceits,  and  from  which  nothing  can  shield  us  but  that  true 
self-knowledge  which  we  obtain  from  the  word  of  God,  kept  in 
constant  operation  by  the  exercise  of  self-denial.  It  is  a  scion 
from  the  root  of  unbelief,  which  must  be  torn  from  our  hearts 
if  we  would  be  in  such  wise  followers  of  Christ,  as  to  obtain 
a  share  of  that  glory  wherewith  his  unparalleled  self-denial  has 
been  rewarded  for  himself,  and  for  his  faithful  followers. 

III.  Thirdly,  If  any  man  loill  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  him- 
self, and  take  up  his  cross  daily. 

Under  an  established  state  of  Christianitj'^,  and  in  the  ab- 
sence of  all  persecution  on  account  of  religion,  it  is  not  very 
easy  to  draw  the  line  between  the  duty  of  self-denial  and  that  of 
taking  up  the  cross.  To  come  after  Christ,  and  to  live  in  the 
exercise  of  self-denial,  as  just  explained,  amounts  so  nearly  to 
any  idea  we  can  entertain  of  the  particular  duty  of  taking  up 
our  cross,  that  these  words  may  be  considered  as  expressing  the 
full  extent  of  the  two  previous  duties  combined ;  thereby  denoting 
as  marked  a  separation  from  the  world,  with  as  entire  a  dedica- 
tion of  ourselves  to  the  service  of  God,  as  Christ  himself  pre- 
sented, and  as  is  compatible  with  our  actual  condition  when 
compared  with  his. 

Yet  as  there  certainly  is  a  sense  in  which  the  duty  of  taking  up 
our  cross,  here  enjoined,  may  be  profitably  understood  and 
applied  by  all  Christians,  as  distinct  from  the  duty  of  self-denial, 
I  shall  endeavour  to  explain  it  in  that  sense  in  which  it  is  appli- 
cable to  existing  circumstances  in  our  religious  condition. 

First,  it  includes  an  open  and  public  profession  of  the 
religion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ;  the  confession  of  him  as 
the  Christ  of  GoD,the  promised  Saviour  of  sinners;  the  thankful 
acceptance  of  the  atonement  of  his  death  as  the  only  sacrifice  for 
sin,  with  obedience  to  the  commands  he  hath  left  us  in  the  gospel 
Vol.  II.— 29 


226  HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST. 

This  may  be  considered  as  the  lowest  sense  indeed,  in  which 
the  taking  up  the  cross  is  to  be  understood.  Yet  it  is  certainly 
a  part  of  the  duty,  and  one  which  I  heartily  wish  was  more  con- 
sidered and  acted  upon  than  it  is ;  for  it  is  essential  to  any  benefit 
by  and  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  that  is  not  for 
me  is  against  me,  says  our  Lord,  and  he  threatens  to  deny  all 
such  in  the  last  day,  as  shall  be  either  afraid  or  ashamed  to 
confess  him  before  men. 

The  words  of  my  text  also  point  to  this  meaning  of  the  com- 
mand to  take  up  our  cross.  Many  went  after  Christ  to  hear 
his  doctrine,  and  see  the  miracles  he  wrought  to  confirm  it  as 
divine,  who  yet  from  various  causes  did  not  openly  become  his 
disciples  ;  and  we  may  reasonably  suppose,  that  it  was  by  way 
of  rebuke  and  wai-ning  to  such  persons,  that  he  expressed  him- 
self as  in  the  words  of  my  text.  In  like  manner,  in  the  present 
day,  multitudes  come  after  Christ,  in  so  far  as  attendance  upon 
the  public  ordinances  of  religion  may  be  thus  called,  who  yet 
go  no  farther ;  who  take  not  up  the  cross  in  this  sense  of  the 
words  ;  who  from  some  cause,  alien  to  a  just  sense  either  of  the 
benefits  to  be  derived  from  Christ,  or  of  the  loss  and  danger 
incurred  by  thus  tampering  and  trifling  with  this  indispensable 
duty,  hang  upon  the  skirts  of  religion,  as  it  were,  without  once 
realizing  that  awful  day,  when  Christ  shall  justly  say  to  them, 
I  never  knew  you — ye  were  ashamed  of  me  before  men — I  can- 
not confess  you  before  my  Father  and  the  holy  angels. 

Secondly,  to  take  up  our  cross  daily,  includes  a  ready  and 
willing  submission  to  those  particular  trials  wherewith  the  provi- 
dence of  Almighty  God  sees  fit  to  exercise  our  faith  and  prove 
our  obedience.  As  self-denial  consists  chiefly  in  foregoing 
some  present  gratification,  because  inconsistent  with  the  care  of 
our  souls,  and  contrary  to  the  honour  of  God,  the  taking  up  the 
cross  in  this  sense  of  the  words,  will  consist  in  suffering  patiently 
whatever  of  privation  or  of  direct  infliction  the  divine  wisdom 
sees  necessary  to  purify  and  perfect  our  fallen  nature,  to  wean 
us  from  the  world  and  prepare  us  for  glory.  This  is  the  method 
by  which  the  dross  of  earthly  desires  can  best  be  purged  off",  and 
therefore  are  they  sent.  Our  Saviour  himself,  as  man,  was  made 
perfect  through  suff'erings,  and  we  must  be  made  like  unto  him 


HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST.  227 

in  this  as  in  all  other  respects,  if  we  would  be  partakers  with 
him  in  that  glory  to  which  his  obedience  hath  exalted  him. 

Thirdly,  to  take  up  our  cross  includes  in  the  highest  sense 
of  the  words,  the  being  ready  to  encounter  all  worldly  loss, 
to  endure  all  worldly  suffering,  to  submit  to  persecution,  and 
even  to  the  loss  of  life  itself,  rather  than  deny  Christ  or  sur- 
render our  religion.  Of  this  triumph  of  faith,  of  this  fixed  and 
unshaken  trust  in  God  our  Saviour,  thousands  have  set  the 
example,  not  counting  their  lives  dear  unto  themselves,  so 
they  might  win  Christ  and  be  found  in  him.  And  though  we 
are  not  called,  my  brethren,  to  such  trials,  yet  are  we  called  to 
possess  the  same  believing,  confiding  spirit,  the  mind  that  was  in 
Christ  and  in  these  his  faithful  disciples.  The  same  grace, 
also,  through  which  they  were  borne  onward  to  the  prize  of 
their  high  calling,  is  yet  in  operation,  and  suflScient  for  every 
duty  required  at  our  hands ;  and  sure  we  may  be,  that  if  our 
trials  are  lighter  our  obligations  are  higher,  if  less  is  required  at 
our  hands,  the  more  thankful,  the  more  faithful,  and  the  more 
earnest  we  should  be  in  what  is  enjoined  us ;  and  that  if  we 
take  not  up  the  cross  appointed  for  our  day,  Christ's  light  and 
and  easy  yoke,  we  must  bear  for  ever  the  bitter  cross  of  the 
curse  of  God,  the  insupportable  load  of  everlasting  torment. 

Lastly — 

If  any  man  tcill  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up 
his  cross  daily,  and  follow  me. 

To  follow  Christ  means,  in  this  connexion,  to  continue 
steadfast  in  the  profession  and  practice  of  his  religion,  neither 
terrified  by  persecution  nor  seduced  by  temptation. 

Perseverance  in  holiness  is  the  condition  of  salvation,  my 
brethren.  He  that  endureth  to  the  end  the  same  shall  be  saved, 
says  our  Lord,  but  if  he  draiv  back  my  soul  shall  have  no  plea- 
sure in  him,  says  God.  The  reward  of  eternal  life,  as  it  exceeds 
all  computation,  as  it  is  a  free  gift  to  undeserving  creatures 
through  the  merits  of  Christ,  is  not  to  be  lightly  esteemed  or 
trifled  with,  nor  are  the  means  of  attaining  it,  set  forth  in  the 
word  of  God,  to  be  taken  up  or  put  down  upon  any  calculations 
of  present  interest  or  convenience.  JVo  man  having  put  his  hand 
to  the  plough  and  looking  back  is  ft  for  the  kingdom  of  God.     If 


228  HOW    TO    COME    TO    CHRIST. 

the  business  or  the  pleasures  of  the  world,  or  the  indolence  or 
inadvertence  of  our  corrupt  hearts,  are  permitted  to  withstand 
or  to  neutralize  the  solemn  assurances  of  death,  judgment,  and 
eternity,  awaiting  accountable  beings,  favoured  with  the  glad 
tidings  of  the  gospel  and  furnished  with  the  means  of  grace,  it 
ivere  better  for  us,  my  hearers,  never  to  have  known  the  xoay  of 
righteousness  than  to  depart  from  the  holy  commandment  de- 
livered to  us ;  it  were  good  for  us  that  we  had  never  been 
born,  if  we  fall  away  from  the  offered  mercy  of  God,  and  the 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  break  the  solemn  obliga- 
tions undertaken  at  our  baptism.  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death 
and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life,  says  the  faithful  and  true 
witness.  He  that  overcometh  shall  inherit  all  things.  But  the 
fearful  and  unbelieving,  and  the  abominable,  and  murderers,  and 
whoremongers,  and  sorcerers,  and  idolators,  and  all  liars,  shall  have 
their  part  in  the  lake  which  burnetii  with  fire  and  brimstone,  which 
is  the  second  death. 

What  then  is  our  part,  my  dear  friends,  under  the  undeniable 
responsibilities  of  our  condition'?  Where  is  room  even  for  hesi- 
tation under  the  vast  alternative  of  life  or  death  eternal  1  Let 
truth  then  prevail ;  let  the  reasonableness  of  our  duty  recom- 
mend it  to  our  most  serious  attention  ;  let  the  awful  uncertainty 
of  the  present  life  throw  its  weight  into  the  scale  of  our  salva- 
tion, and  bring  us  forthwith  to  Christ,  prepared  to  deny 
ourselves,  to  take  up  our  cross,  and  to  follow  Jesus  in  the  way 
which  he  hath  trodden  before  us,  through  all  the  changes  and 
chances  of  this  mortal  life.  Let  us  do  this,  my  brethren  and 
hearers,  under  the  happy  assurance  that  he,  whose  strength  is 
made  perfect  in  our  weakness,  will  be  with  us  in  all  our  trials, 
and  make  good  his  encouraging  declaration,  that  his  yoke  is  easy 
and  his  burden  light.  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  are  iceary  and 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Learn  of  me — and  ye  shall  find 
rest  unto  your  souls.  O  that  the  answer  may  be  from  all ; — Lord 
to  whom  else  shall  we  go,  for  thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life. 


SERMON   XX. 

THE    CAUSE    OF    NOT    COMING    TO    CHRIST. 

John  v.  40. 
"And  ye  will  not  come  to  me  that  ye  might  have  life." 

Nothing  is  so  fatal  to  our  souls,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  as 
indifference  and  carelessness  on  the  subject  of  religion.  Nothing 
forms  so  complete  a  bar  to  the  grace  of  the  gospel  as  that  obsti- 
nate unwillingness  to  be  saved  which  is  evidenced  by  those  who 
resist  the  warning  and  instruction  of  God's  word,  the  reason  of 
their  own  minds,  and  the  verdict  of  their  own  consciences,  to 
say  nothing  of  those  strivings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  ever 
and  anon  apply  the  truth  to  their  hearts  with  such  power  as 
almost  to  persuade  them  to  yield.  But  they  loill  not  come  to 
Christ  that  they  might  have  life.  Some  deceit  of  sin — some 
flattering  bait  of  the  God  of  this  world — some  engagement  with 
the  things  of  time  and  sense  on  which  they  are  more  bent  than 
on  the  care  of  their  immortal  souls,  stifles  the  conviction  of  guilt 
and  danger,  and  delivers  them  over  once  more  to  the  strong 
delusion  which  ends  in  their  being  hardened  in  sin.  I  speak  not 
now  of  those  bold  contenders  against  God  and  the  word  of  his 
grace  who  make  a  mock  at  sin,  scoff  at  revelation,  and  sufficient 
for  their  own  expectations  here  and  hereafter,  deny  the  Lord 
that  bought  them,  and  trample  on  his  blood — such  cannot  be 
expected  to  come  to  him  for  life — but  of  that  greater  number 
on  whom  the  word  of  life  is  bestowed  in  vain,  for  they  search 
not  the  Scriptures — on  whom  warning  is  thrown  away,  for  they 
heed  it  not — in  whose  hearts  conviction  is  deadened  by  the  care 
of  other  things,  and  by  whom  time  is  not  measured  by  its 
advancement  towards  eternity,  but  as  it  promotes  or  retards  the 
gainsj'jhe  enjoyments,  the  disappointments  or  the  sufferings  of 
the  life  that  now  is.  Oh  !  what  multitudes  are  in  this  danger- 
ous condition  in  this  Christian  land,  and  who  are  thus,  partly 


230       THE  CAUSE  OF  NOT  COMING  TO  CHRIST. 

from  mistaken  views  of  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  but  chiefly 
from  thoughtlessness  and  carelessness  on  the  subject  of  religion, 
adding  force  to  the  natural  enmity  of  the  carnal  mind  and 
increasing  the  power  of  those  temptations  which  lead  them 
farther  and  farther  from  God.  And  shall  no  effort  be  made  to 
show  them  their  danger,  and  point  them  to  a  better  course  1 
Yes,  by  Goo's  good  blessing,  this  day  shall  be  a  witness  for  me 
in  this  behalf,  and,  I  trust,  for  some  of  them,  by  showing  them, 

First,  what  are  the  chief  hindrances  which  prevent  people 
from  coming  to  Christ  that  they  might  have  life. 

SECoNBLr,  in  what  manner  they  must  come  to  obtain  this 
blessing. 

And  then  by  making  in  conclusion  a  short  application  of  the 
subject. 

t^nd  ye  will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have  life. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  point  out  the  chief  hindrances  which  pre- 
vent people  from  coming  to  Christ  that  they  might  have  life. 

The  first  and  main  obstacle  is  want  of  serious  consideration. 
Few  or  none  can  plead  ignorance  of  the  great  outlines  of  Chris- 
tianity. But  in  religion,  as  in  all  other  sciences,  knowledge, 
when  unapplied,  differs  in  nothing  from  ignorance.  Now  to 
consider  and  apply  knowledge  is  a  habit  or  qualification  of  mind 
to  be  acquired  by  practice  and  discipline,  and  it  is  the  great  art 
which  makes  education  of  every  kind  useful  and  profitable. 

In  religion  especially,  which  to  fallen  creatures  is  in  every 
sense  a  forced  state,  this  habit  of  considering  and  applying  the 
truths  revealed  to  us  lies  at  the  very  entrance  of  any  advance- 
ment or  progress  whatever.  Without  this,  whatever  knowledge 
we  attain  to  of  God  and  ourselves,  of  the  means  provided  for 
our  benefit  and  the  use  we  are  required  to  make  of  them,  is 
nothing  but  a  mere  speculation  of  the  understanding,  as  desti- 
tute of  any  moral  power  over  the  will  and  affections  as  the 
reinembi'ance  of  any  abstruse  mathematical  demonstration. 
And  yet  we  might  well  imagine  that  was  there  any  one  thing 
the  intrinsic  importance  of  which  would  bear  down  all  opposi- 
tion and  engage  exclusively  the  attention  and  endeavours  of 
intelligent  and  accountable  beings,  it  must  be  religion ;  for 
what  is  rehgion  but  the  science  of  being  happy  here  and  happy 


THE  CAUSE  OF  NOT  COMING  TO  CHRIST.       231 

for  ever,  and  this  upon  as  sure  a  foundation  as  the  being  and 
truth  of  Almighty  God. 

The  nature  of  God  and  his  just  claims  upon  us  as  our  Crea- 
tor being  once  admitted,  the  way  is  open  to  all  the  wonders  of 
his  wisdom  and  love  in  the  redemption  of  the  world,  through 
careful  consideration.  The  plan  of  this  mighty  work  is  found 
to  be  so  exactly  suited  to  our  condition,  so  adequate  to  the 
relief  of  our  most  pressing  wants,  so  calculated  to  give  certainty 
and  assurance  to  what  we  must  otherwise  for  ever  have 
remained  ignorant  of,  that  the  conclusion  from  this  branch  of 
the  evidence  is  almost  compulsory.  But  to  produce  any  effect 
it  must  be  considered,  must  be  dwelt  upon,  must  be  applied  and 
carried  out  to  the  thoughts,  and  the  words,  and  the  actions  of 
the  man,  must  in  this  way  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  real 
complexion  of  his  character  and  conduct  as  in  the  sight  of  God, 
as  transacted  before  one  who  cannot  be  deceived,  and  whose 
judgment  must  ever  be  according  to  truth.  It  is  by  this  process 
that  we  come  to  understand  our  true  condition,  to  perceive 
something  of  the  purity  of  God  and  of  the  malignity  of  sin  as 
opposed  to  the  holiness  of  his  nature,  that  we  are  drawn  to  count 
up  the  endless  yearsof  eternity  and  the  tremendous  sanctions  with 
which  it  is  made  to  bear  upon  the  short  and  uncertain  state  of 
being  which  is  hourly  drawing  us  nearer  and  nearer  to  all  that 
it  has  to  enjoy  or  to  suffer  ;  and  are  led  to  entertain  the  solemn 
meditation — What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved? 

It  is  by  consideration  only  that  we  arrive  at  that  conclusive 
proof  in  favour  of  revelation  which  grows  out  of  the  exact 
agreement  of  the  representation  therein  given  of  man  fallen, 
with  what  experience  and  observation  have  taught  us  of  our- 
selves and  others.  It  is  by  this  we  perceive  that  the  plan  of 
redemption,  though  embracing  the  world  in  its  ample  enclosure, 
is  yet  special  to  every  individual  sinner.  So  much  so  that  was 
there  not  another  but  himself  in  the  boundary  of  the  universe, 
the  whole  of  this  glorious  provision  of  the  love  of  God,  in  the 
wonderful  comprehension  of  its  breadth,  and  length,  and 
height,  and  depth,  would  have  been  needed  to  bring  that  single 
sinner  back  to  holiness  and  God. 

Thus  far  can  consideration  of  what  is  revealed  to  us,  aided  by 


232        THE  CAUSE  OF  NOT  COMING  TO  CHRIST. 

that  divine  grace  of  which  all  baptized  persons  are  partakers, 
bring  those  who  give  themselves  seriously  to  it ;  and  to  this  very 
end  is  the  whole  counsel  of  God  addressed  to  us  as  reasonable 
beings,  and  made  to  bear  upon  hopes  and  fears  which  we  can 
estimate  and  apply. 

But  there  is  one  step  further  to  which  consideration  of  divine 
truth  can  lead  us,  and  that  is  to  prayer  ;  for  prayer  is  the  fruit 
of  a  sense  of  want  and  danger,  and  is  the  evidence  which 
heaven  requires  of  our  sincerity.  On  this  is  suspended  all  its 
mighty  benefits  to  us  in  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Ask  and 
ye  shall  receive,  seek  and  ye  shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall  be  open- 
ed unto  you.  For  if  ye  being  evil  knoiv  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  heavenly  Father  give  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him. 

Now  the  Holy  Spirit  is  that  mighty  agent  in  the  great  work 
of  our  salvation,  without  whom  we  can  do  nothing.  It  is  by 
him  that  thought,  and  reflection,  and  consideration  of  divine 
things  is  prompted  and  guided.  It  is  by  him  that  the  truth  is 
witnessed  and  faith  strengthened  to  receive  and  apply  it.  It  is  by 
him  that  sin  is  shown  in  its  true  colours,  and  its  most  just  sen- 
tence brought  home  to  the  personal  conviction  of  the  sinner. 
It  is  by  him  that  the  heart  is  softened  to  penitence,  and  the 
prayer  of  faith  put  forth  with  groanings  that  cannot  be  uttered. 
It  is  by  him  that  God  is  revealed  as  accessible  to  the  penitent 
through  Jesus  Christ,  and  hope  inspired  through  his  prevailing 
intercession.  It  is  by  him  that  the  things  which  are  Christ's — the 
atonement  of  his  death,  the  power  of  his  resurrection,  and  the 
grace  of  his  mediatorial  kingdom — are  taken  and  showed  unto 
us.  It  is  by  him  that  these  unspeakable  gifts  of  the  mercy  of  God 
and  the  love  of  Christ,  are  applied  to  the  peace  and  comfort  of 
the  soul,  through  the  faith  of  the  operation  of  God,  and  thus  is 
the  message  of  the  gospel  of  God  concerning  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord  made  life  and  power  to  all  who  give  it  the 
attention  it  deserves;  while  to  the  thoughtless  and  unconcerned, 
to  the  dissolute  and  worldly  minded,  who  never  carry  forward 
their  thoughts  to  the  awful  realities  of  death  and  judgment,  who 
are  so  occupied  with  time  that  they  forget  eternity,  who  turn  a 
deaf  ear  to  the  warnings  of  God's  word,  and  stifle  the  misgivings 


THE  CAUSE  OF  NOT  COMING  TO  CHRIST.       233 

and  convictions  of  their  own  consciences,  the  voice  of  God  within 
them.  These  things,  though  known  and  understood  in  some 
degree,  are  yet  mere  speculations  of  something  distant  and 
fortuitous — not  near  and  dear  reaUties  on  which  peace  and 
comfort  in  time,  and  happiness  in  eternity,  unchangeably 
depend.  And  thus  do  we  see,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  how 
want  of  consideration  bars  us  out  from  the  very  entrance  of 
religion  ;  how  it  stops  up  all  the  avenues  by  which  saving  truth 
might  reach  the  heart,  and  spreads  the  darkening  veil  of  unbe- 
lief over  our  own  wants  and  heaven's  mercies.  Especially  do  we 
see  how  it  blinds  the  mind  to  the  efficacy,  sufficiency,  and 
necessity  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  hope  of  a  sinner  or  the 
acceptance  of  a  saint — and  why  it  is,  that  under  the  clear  light 
of  the  gospel  the  compassionate  reproach  of  our  blessed  Lord  to 
his  then  hearers  contained  in  my  text.  Ye  will  not  come  to  me  that  ye 
might  have  life,  can  yet  be  addressed  to  such  multitudes  in  every 
Christian  land — why  in  this  little  congregation  there  are  so 
many  who  care  for  none  of  these  things.  Alas  !  Israel  doth 
not  know,  my  people  doth  not  consider,  and  therefore  it  is 
that  they  will  none  of  me.  But  whom  else  will  you  have  ? 
within  the  bound  of  thought  is  there  any  thing  that  can  fill  the 
desires  of  an  immortal  spirit  but  God  only  ?  And  will  you  care- 
lessly remain  ignorant  of  him  and  of  all  his  plans  of  mercy  and 
love  for  your  good  ?  or  knowing  them  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear, 
will  you  cast  them  under  your  ieet,  and  madly  rush  upon 
destruction  1  Yet  this  is  what  too  surely  awaits  you  if  you  give 
no  care  to  the  thought  of  your  souls.  You  may  say  in  the  levity 
of  your  minds  and  the  blindness  of  your  heart.  We  feel  no 
want,  we  experience  no  uneasiness  or  injury  to  the  pursuits 
we  are  engaged  in  from  the  absence  of  religion,  we  perceive 
no  need  of  Jesus  Christ  to  our  happiness,  nor  is  there 
any  form  or  comeliness  in  him  that  we  should  desire  him. 
Alas  !  I  know  it  is  even  so,  for  I  have  been  as  you  are,  and  may 
God  awaken  you.  But,  nevertheless,  your  want  remaineth — 
in  alienation  from  God,  opposition  to  his  holy  nature,  and  unfit- 
ness for  his  holy  presence — while  death  is  drawing  nearer  and 
nearer  every  day  to  transmit  you  to  his  righteous  judgment. 
O  ask  yourselves,  are  you  prepared  for  it,  have  you  an 
Vol.  II.— 30 


234  THE    CAUSE    OF    NOT    COMING    TO    CHRIST. 

answer  ready  for  the  searcher  of  hearts,  as  you  have  for  your 
own  consciences ;  have  you  one  that  he  will  be  quieted  with, 
that  you  know  he  will  accept  ?  Alas  !  were  the  real  truth 
known,  there  are  moments  when  you  dare  not  trust  to  it  your- 
selves, when  you  feel  that  all  is  not  right,  when  something 
whispers  in  your  heart — There  is  another  life,  there  is  a  God, 
there  is  a  judgment  day,  there  is  a  heaven,  there  is  a  hell !  O 
let  it  now  take  possession  of  your  most  serious  thought,  and 
carry  you  out  to  that  full  and  faithful  examination  of  the  claims 
of  religion,  of  your  own  want  and  sinfulness,  of  the  means 
and  mercy  provided  for  you  in  the  gospel,  which  you  have 
hitherto  neglected.  And  let  me  tell  you  for  your  encourage- 
ment, that  among  those  means  you  will  find  a  Saviour,  just  such 
as  your  soul  would  desire,  who  has  redeemed  you  to  God  by  his 
own  blood,  who  has  called  you  to  the  hope  of  the  gospel,  who 
ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  you,  who  invites  you  to 
come  to  him  for  pardon,  peace,  and  eternal  life,  and  who,  this 
day,  meets  all  your  obstinate  disregard  and  contempt  of  his 
merciful  long  suffering,  not  with  wrath  and  vengeance,  but  with 
the  mild  and  gracious  reproof,  ye  ivill  not  come  to  me  that  ye 
might  have  life. 

But  let  me  also  warn  you,  my  friends,  it  will  not  be  always 
thus.  There  is  a  limit  to  the  long  suffering  even  of  God,  there  is 
to  every  individual  under  the  gospel  a  day  of  grace,  within  which 
the  door  of  mercy  stands  open  for  his  return,  but  beyond 
which,  it  is  for  ever  barred  against  him.  Remember  the  foolish 
virgins,  who  slumbered  and  slept  until  their  oil  was  all  consumed; 
they  went  and  bought  more,  lit  up  their  lamps  and  came  and 
knocked,  but  found  no  admittance. 

1  thought  when  I  began,  my  brethren,  to  have  gone  on  with 
an  enumeration  of  those  particular  hindrances  which  prevent 
men  from  coming  to  Christ,  such  as  unbelief,  self-righteous- 
ness, love  of  the  world,  false  notions  of  the  mercy  of  God,  pro- 
crastination, and,  what  lies  at  the  root  of  all  the  rest,  the  carnal 
mind,  the  naturally  hostile  disposition  of  every  fallen  creature 
against  the  holiness  of  God. 

But  as  all  these,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  named,  either 
originate  hi  want  of  consideration,  or  are  increased  in  their 


THE  CAUSE  OF  NOT  COMING  TO  CHRIST.       235 

power  over  us,  by  carelessly  shutting  our  eyes  against  the  light, 
It  would  be  needless  repetition  to  go  over  them  separately.  °  It 
being  evident  to  the  plainest  mind,  that  unbelief  can  never  stand 
against  the  sincere  and  honest  examination  of  revelation  and  its 
proofs,  the  serious  consideration  of  the  nature  of  God,  and  the 
condition  of  man  ;  that  self-righteousness  can  have  no  place  in 
that  man  who  has  studied  himself  even  slightly;  that  there  can 
be  no  gain  in  giving  our  immortal  souls  in  exchange  for  that 
which  we  cannot  keep  even  if  we  had  it;  that  the  mercy  of 
God  is  made  known  to  us  that  he  may  be  feared  and  sought 
unto,  not  that  he  may  be  trifled  with  and  mocked;  and  that  to 
beings  who  know  not  what  a  day  may  bring  forth  to  put  in  the 
distance,  the  awful  concerns  of  death,  judgment,  and  eternity, 
IS  the  foolishness  of  folly  and  madness. 

With  respect  to  the  carnal  mind,  the  original  corruption  of 
our  nature,  I  would  say  a  few  words  :— while  it  is  admitted  that 
no  extent  or  seriousness  of  consideration  is  competent  to  remove 
this  taint  and  Infection  of  sin,  that  being  the  prerogative  of  the 
HoLv  Spirit  only  ;  certain  it  is,  that  if  we  never  consider,  that 
IS,  reflect  seriously  on  our  state,  our  chains  will  be  rivetted  the 
faster,  and  our  hereditary  enmity  to  God  increased. 

Whereas  by  meeting  what  is  presented  to  us,  on  the  high 
authority  of  a  message  from  God,  with  the  care  and  attention  it 
deserves,  we  obtain  not  only  the  knowledge  and  confirmation  of 
a  most  dangerous  and  fatal  disease,  but  are  furnished  with  a 
sovereign  remedy  against  it,  are  directed  to  the  great  physician 
of  souls,  encouraged  to  take  the  medicine  he  prescribes,  and 
watched  over  and  nursed  under  its  operation  by  his  Holy 
Spirit,  to  the  entire  renovation  of  our  nature,  the  fruit  being 
unto  holiness  and  the  end  everlasting  life. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  show  you  in  what  manner  we  must 
come  to  him  to  obtain  this  blessing. 

To  understand  this  aright,  we  must  consider  who  Jesus 
Christ  was,  what  he  did,  and  what  he  did  it  for,  together  with 
what  he  IS  now.  Our  only  authority,  therefore,  the  Bible 
informs  us  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,  one  with  the 
b  ather  from  all  eternity  ;  that  he  came  to  this  world,  took  upon 


236  THE    CAUSE    OF    NOT    COMING    TO    CHRIST. 

him  our  mortal  nature,  and  appeared  in  the  lowly  condition  of 
a  servant.  In  this  state  he  spent  a  life  of  toil,  privation,  and 
suffering,  was  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief;  that 
after  preaching  the  gospel  and  instructing  mankind,  both  by 
precept  and  example,  in  that  pure  religion  he  came  to  establish 
in  the  world,  he  suffered  himself  to  be  betrayed  into  the  hands 
of  his  enemies,  and  submitted  to  a  most  cruel  and  ignominous 
death  upon  the  cross.  But  why  did  he  submit  to  all  this  '?  the 
same  authority  informs  us,  that  it  was  all  for  man,  and  for  man's 
salvation ;  to  redeem  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  broken  by 
sin,  he  was  content  to  be  made  a  curse  for  us ;  to  reconcile  God 
to  his  creatures,  he  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree  ; 
by  shedding  his  own  most  precious  blood  he  atoned  for  the  guilt 
of  sin,  and  he  submitted  to  death  to  purchase  eternal  life  for  all 
who  believe  and  obey  him.  Having  thus  fulfilled  the  will  of  the 
Father,  and  finished  the  work  he  had  given  him  to  do,  he  rose 
from  the  dead,  ascended  up  on  high,  led  captivity  captive,  and 
received  gifts  for  man,  pardon  of  sin,  restoration  to  God's  favour, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  to  renew  them  to  repentance,  to  give 
them  the  victory  over  sin  and  death,  and  prepare  them  for 
heavenly  glory  and  eternal  life ;  and  he  is  now  exalted  to  the 
right  hand  of  the  Majesty  in  the  heavens,  all  things  in  heaven 
and  in  earth  being  put  in  subjection  under  him,  where  he  ever 
liveth  to  watch  over  his  Church  and  people,  to  extend  the  gospel 
in  the  world,  to  accomplish  the  number  of  his  elect,  to  guide 
them  through  the  trials  of  time,  and,  when  all  shall  be  concluded, 
to  raise  up  their  mortal  bodies  by  his  Spirit  dwelling  in  them 
to  meet  the  judgment  of  the  great  day,  and  to  be  rewarded  or 
punished  everlastingly,  according  to  the  conditions  of  the  gospel 
now  preached  unto  them.  And  thus  are  we  led  to  see  with 
what  dispositions  of  mind,  in  what  way  and  manner,  we  are 
to  come  to  this  ever  blessed,  all  powerful,  and  most  merciful 
Redeemer,  that  we  may  have  life. 

The  first  thing,  therefore,  we  should  be  sensible  of,  and  that 
most  deeply,  is,  that  sin  is  that  dreadful  and  destructive  evil  the 
Bible  describes  it  to  be.  Eternally  opposed  to  all  God's  perfec- 
tions, eternally  hated  of  him,  and  justly  deserving  his  everlasting 


THE  CAUSE  OF  NOT  COMING  TO  CHRIST.       237 

wrath.  Which  is  demonstrated  to  us  by  his  exacting  from  his 
only  begotten  Son  the  penalty  due  to  it  by  the  justice  of  his 
holy  law,  to  prepare  the  way  for  its  pardon. 

Next,  a  humbling  sense  of  our  own  many  and  grievous  offences 
against  God,  both  in  thought,  word  and  deed — with  a  true  and 
genuine  sorrow  for  our  ingratitude  and  baseness  against  our 
Creator  and  Benefactor.  There  is  indeed  a  sorrow  of  the  world 
which  worketh  death,  by  being  mistaken  for  that  godly  sorrow 
which  worketh  repentance  unto  life.  And  herein  lies  the  dis- 
tinction. What  is  denominated  the  sorrow  of  the  world,  springs 
from  the  present  consequences  of  the  particular  sin  or  sins  upon 
ourselves,  and  would  never  have  been  felt,  had  no  disappoint- 
ment or  suffering  followed.  But  godly  sorrow,  true  contrition 
for  sin,  has  respect  to  the  offence  as  against  God.  „^gainst  thee, 
thee  only,  have  I  sinned,  says  David,  making  his  confession  to 
God  even  in  as  heinous  crimes  as  adultery  and  murder,  com- 
mitted against  his  neighbour.  And  herein  is  the  worth  and 
efficacy  of  the  one  over  the  other  manifested,  inasmuch  as  godly 
sorrow  for  sin  always  includes  the  ill  done  to  our  neighbour — 
for  without  reparation  and  restitution  where  either  is  possible, 
there  is  no  true  repentance.  Whereas  the  sorrow  of  the  world 
has  no  respect  whatever  to  the  offence  as  against  God,  but  is 
entirely  personal  and  selfish. 

A  third  disposition  of  mind  is  a  true  hatred  of  sin,  and  an 
instant  forsaking  of  it  in  all  its  practices,  with  a  hungering  and 
thirsting  after  righteousness.  Cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do 
well.  Make  me  a  clean  heart  O  Lord,  and  renew  a  right  spirit 
within  me. 

Lastly,  a  complete  sense  of  our  own  helplessness  and  insuffi- 
ciency, with  a  humble,  yet  confident  reliance  on  the  promised 
mercy  of  God,  and  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Ye 
are  saved  by  grace,  through  faith.  Our  sufficiency  is  of  God. 
Without  me  ye  can  do  nothing.     My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee. 

With  such  views  and  such  dispositions  of  mind,  let  us  come  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  the  two  blessings  we  all  stand  in  need 
of — mercy  to  cover  our  sins,  negligences  and  ignorances ;  and 
grace  to  renew  our  hearts  daily  before  him  in  righteousness. 
Let  us  come  to  him  drawing  near  with  true  hearts,  in  full  assur- 


238       THE  CAUSE  OF  NOT  COMING  TO  CHRIST. 

ance  of  faith,  encouraged  by  his  most  gracious  invitation. 
Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  are  weary  and  heavy  laden,  and  I  xoill  give 
you  rest.  These  words  are  the  full  warrant  for  every  sinner  to 
break  the  chains  of  his  bondage  to  death,  and  come  to  the  Lord 
Jesus,  that  he  may  have  life.  And  O,  that  while  the  Spirit 
and  the  bride  also  say  come,  he  that  heareth  may  say — I  come  ! 
and  he  that  is  athirst  may  come,  and  take  of  the  water  of  life 
freely. 

I  come  now  to  make  a  short  application  of  the  subject,  and 
of  what  has  been  said  upon  it. 

First,  to  those  who  come  not : 

1  wonder  if  any  who  are  present  in  this  dangerous  condition, 
could  give  an  answer  to — Why  do  you  not  come  1  Can  you  ])lead 
ignorance  of  the  message  and  its  infinite  importance  to  your 
souls'?  Surely  none  present  can  say  so.  Will  you  say  that  the 
invitation  has  never  been  made  to  you  1  God  is  my  witness,  that 
I  have  not  failed  for  the  space  of  seven  years  to  press  it  upon 
you  in  every  shape  I  could  devise.  Must  it  not  be,  then,  for  the 
reason  given  by  our  Lord,  in  my  text ;  Ye  will  not  come.  Ye 
do  resist  the  Holy  Ghost  then,  and  what  must  the  end  be  of 
them  who  put  offered  salvation  from  them  1  But  you  will  say, 
we  have  never  thought  of  these  things,  we  have  not  considered 
them.  This  I  believe,  and  therefore  have  I  pressed  this  duty 
upon  you  to-day.  I  trust  there  is  no  settled  hostility  to  religion 
in  any  of  you  ;  but  in  the  mean  time,  life  is  wasting  apace,  and 
carelessness  is  just  as  dangerous  as  unbelief — for  as  faith  cometh 
by  hearing,  so  does  application  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  all  the 
blessed  effects  of  religion  flow  from  considering  carefully  what 
we  hear.  Of  this,  what  is  set  forth  for  our  learning  in  the  Scrip- 
tures is  one  continued  proof  You  say  you  have  not  considered 
these  things.  And  was  it  not  just  so  before  the  flood,  under 
the  preaching  of  Noah  ]  But  did  they  continue  thoughtless  and 
unconcerned  think  ye,  when  they  saw  the  waters  begin  to  rise 
and  pursue  them  from  hill  to  mountain  1  Or  did  they  curse  the 
carelessness  and  security  which  thus  betrayed  them  to  destruc- 
tion 1  And  how  will  it  be  with  you  continuing  thus,  when  death 
knocks  at  the  door  of  your  chamber,  when  your  reviving  bodies 
hear  the  sound  of  the  last  trumpet,  when  you  see  the  Son  of  Man 


THE    CAUSE    OF    NOT    COMING    TO    CHRIST.  239 

coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  the  frame  of  nature  dissolving, 
the  judgment  set,  the  books  opened,  the  universe  assembled,  and 
the  sentence  of  eternal  death  about  to  be  passed  on  all  who  know 
not  God  and  obey  not  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ? 

Did  not  Sodom  also  and  the  cities  of  the  plain  exhibit  an  instance 
of  the  same  careless  indifference  and  want  of  thought  1  While 
Lot  warned  and  exhorted  they  danced,  they  sung,  they  feasted 
and  made  merry  ;  they  bought,  they  sold,  and  laid  themselves  out 
for  the  world,  till  the  day  that  God  rained  fire  and  brimstone 
upon  them  from  heaven,  and  took  them  off  in  the  pride  of  their 
hearts  and  ripeness  of  their  sins,  to  the  fire  that  never  shall  be 
quenched.  And  does  not  our  Lord  say  that  it  shall  be  more 
tolerable  in  the  day  of  judgment  for  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  than 
for  careless,  delaying  gospel  sinners. 

But,  perhaps,  as  it  is  becoming  fashionable,  you  will  say  you 
do  not  believe  these  things.  And,  what  then  ;  shall  your  unbelief 
make  the  truth  of  God  of  none  effect  ?  When  the  minister  of  God 
earnestly  warns  you  of  these  things  do  you  say  we  do  not 
believe  him.  But  upon  what  grounds  do  you  refuse  to  believe 
him  1  You  confess  that  you  have  not  considered  them,  and, 
therefore,  cannot  be  competent  to  decide  their  truth  or  false- 
hood. O  deceive  not  your  own  souls,  but  say  at  once,  we  will 
not  believe  them,  for  that  is  the  real  truth.  And  was  it  not  just 
so  when  Noah  preached,  and  Lot  warned,  and  the  Roman  armies 
encompassed  Jerusalem  !  But  did  the  water,  or  the  fire,  or  the 
sword,  therefore,  stay  their  vengeance,  and  are  not  all  these 
expressly  set  forth  to  us  as  types  and  representations  of  that 
greit  and  dreadful  day  when  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  be  revealed 
from  heaven  in  flaming  fire  to  punish  the  ungodly. 

When  eternity  is  thus  at  issue  shall  any  who  have  souls  to  be 
saved  continue  careless  ?  shall  youth  think  it  too  soon,  manhood 
be  too  much  occupied  with  the  world,  or  old  age  think  it  too 
late  to  come  to  Christ?  a  vain  thing  to  consider  and  lay  to  heart 
the  things  which  make  for  their  peace.  God  forbid.  To  the 
young  in  particular  I  would  now  speak,  and  through  them  to 
every  age. 

To  you,  then,  who  build  upon  your  youth  as  an  excuse  for  the 
neglect  of  religion,  I  would  put  but  one  question,  to  show  you 


240  THE    CAUSE    OF    NOT    COMING    TO    CHRIST. 

thedangerof  such  presumptuous  procrastination.  Have  you  made 
a  covenant  with  death,  or  received  from  the  Almighty  an  assurance 
of  long  life  1  If  not,  whence  this  blindness  to  the  common  expe- 
rience of  mankind.  Do  the  young,  and  the  healthy,  and  the 
robust  never  die  ?  Or  is  not  death  busier  with  our  early  years 
than  with  all  the  rest  1  O  forget  not,  my  young  friends,  that  it  is 
only  here  one  and  there  another,  that  comes  to  old  age.  Remem- 
ber the  poor  man  who  said  to  his  soul — Soul  thou  hast  much 
goods  laid  up  for  many  years  ;  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink,  and  be 
merry.  But  in  the  midst  of  his  security  God  said  unto  him, 
Thou  fool,  this  night  thy  soul  shall  be  required  of  thee — and  apply 
it  as  a  solemn  warning  to  all  who  put  off  coming  to  Christ  on 
the  presumption  that  it  is  time  enough  yet,  or  from  a  love  of  the 
company,  the  amusements,  the  pleasures  or  the  business  of  the 
world.  You  may  fancy  you  are  happy,  my  young  friends ;  you 
may  flatter  yourselves  with  many  years,  and  in  present  enjoy- 
ment drown  the  claims  of  your  God  and  Saviour  upon  your 
souls,  but  all  this  must  come  to  an  end.  And  what  then.  In  all 
this  time  what  preparation  is  made  for  death,  for  judgment,  for 
eternity — where  is  your  pardon,  your  interest  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  without  these  how  will  you  face  your  last  enemy  ?  Oh !  what 
an  awful  thought  it  is  to  have  to  meet  death  with  the  fixed  con- 
viction that  he  is  but  the  forerunner  of  the  second  death,  which 
knows  not  how  to  die  or  to  escape  from  eternal  misery  and 
despair — that  dreadful  death  from  which  Jesus  now  calls  you 
but  you  will  not  come  to  him  that  you  might  have  life,  even  life 
eternal.  That  miserable  death  which  you  now  choose  in  the  error 
of  your  life  in  opposition  to  truth,  to  reason,  to  interest,  tcb  the 
mercy  of  God  and  the  love  of  Christ.  Oh  !  terrible  voice  of 
most  just  judgment,  which  shall  then  be  pronounced  upon  you, 
when  the  Lord  Jesus,  who  died  to  save  you,  who  in  this  world 
so  mercifully  invites  you  to  come  to  him  but  ye  will  not,  shall 
say  unto  you — Ye  would  not  come  to  me,  ye  would  not  be  made 
holy  in  time,  ye  cannot  be  made  happy  in  eternity — Depart, 
therefore,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire  prepared  for  the  devil 
and  his  angels. 

But,  thanks  be  to  God,  my  brethren,  there  is  a  relief  from 
this  dark  and  dreary  prospect,  in  the  blessedness  which  awaits 


THE    CAUSE    OF     NOT     COMING    TO    CHRIST.  241 

those  who,  in  this  the  day  of  their  visitation,  come  to  Jesus 
Christ  for  life,  who  learn  of  him  and  find  rest  to  their  souls. 
From  that  ha[)[)y  moment  they  are  his  peculiar  care.  The  power 
of  his  providence  and  the  blessings  of  his  grace  are  all  engaged 
in  their  behalf.  Wisely,  but  darkly  and  wonderfully  sometimes, 
he  orders  their  course  through  the  world,  but  whether  in  pros- 
perity or  adversity  all  things  are  made  to  work  together  for  their 
good  ;  and  in  the  closing  scene  of  all  our  hopes  and  fears,  he 
will  be  found  as  faithful  in  his  promises  as  in  his  threatenings. 
When  those  who  have  here  rejected  him  shall  be  banished  for 
ever  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  the  glory  of  his  power. 
Those  who  have  here  come  to  him  and  have  endured  unto  the  end 
shall  enter  into  the  joy  of  their  Lord,  into  that  inheritance  incor- 

ruptible  and  iindefiled,  and  which  fadeth  not  aivay ivhere  there 

shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow  nor  crying,  neither  shall  there 
be  any  more  pain. 

In  this  blessed  hope,  dear  brethren,  let  us  purify  ourselves, 
even  as  He  is  pure.  Let  us  walk  worthy  of  our  heavenly  callino-, 
adorning  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour  in  all  things  ;  ascribing 
to  God  the  Father,  whose  love  and  mercy  provided  our  deliver- 
ance— to  God  the  Son  who  died  to  procure  it,  and  to  God  the 
Holy  Ghost  who  won  us  over  to  enjoy  it,  all  the  glory  and 
praise  of  our  salvation,  now  and  ever,  world  without  end. 


Vol.  n.— 31 


SERMON  XXI. 


REVERENCE    OF    CHRIST. 


Matthew  xxi.  37. 
"But,  last  of  all,  he  sent  unto  them  his  son,  saying,  They  will  reverence  my  son." 

The  favour  and  providence  of  God   tovrards  the   Jewish 
Church  and  nation,  as  being  the  vineyard  he  had  planted  and 
had  watered  with  his  heavenly  dew,  the  doctrine  of  the  law  and 
of  the  prophets,  with  the  unfruitful  and  ungrateful  conduct  of 
that  people,  form  the  groundwork  of  this  parable  :     In  which, 
by  a  very  lively  representation  of  their  case  and  such  as  came 
home  to  the  consciences  of  all  who  heard  it,  (for  they  at  once 
united  in  acknowledging  the  just  retribution  due  to  their  unjust 
and  rebellious  refusal  of  the  rights  of  the  lord  of  the  vineyard,  their 
cruel  treatment  of  his  messengers,  and  avaricious  murder  of  his 
only  son,  and  in  deprecating  the  consequences  of  such  con- 
duct,) our  blessed  Lord  endeavoured  to  awaken  them  to  a  right 
sense  of  the  enormity  of  their  guilt  and  imminent  danger  in  slight- 
ing and  rejecting  this  last  overture  of  heaven's  mercy  ;  and  in  its 
application  to  the  gospel  Church  to  give  to  Christians  in  all  ages 
the  same  warning,  the  same  instruction. — For  what  the  Jews 
once  were,  we  now  are — ^the  Lord's  vineyard.      Ye  are  God's 
husbandry,  ye  are  God's  building,  says  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthian 
Church,  and  as  from  them,  so  from  us  the  owner  of  the  vine- 
yard yet  expects  those  fruits,  those  grateful  and  obedient  returns 
to  his  fatherly  love  and   abundant  goodness  which  not  only 
justice  but  feeling,  sincere  love  on  our  part  and  thankful  sub- 
jection, should  lead  us  to  render.     But,  alas  !  how  much  like 
that  of  the  Jews  is  the  present  state  of  the  Christian  world. 
How  are  we  become  dead  to  the  peculiar  blessings  of  a  state  of 
covenant  relation  to  God,  cold  to  the  continued  proofs  of  his 
love,   and    insensible   to    the   awful  threatenings  which  are 


REVERENCE    OF    CHRIST.  243 

denounced  against  the  abuse  of  his  mercies.     How  is  that  name 
which,  for  the  suffering  of  death  for  us  God  hath  exalted  above 
every  name  and  made  the  only  passport  to  his  favour,  and  by 
the  which  we,  as  Christians,  are  called — how  is  it  lessened  and 
hghtly  esteemed,  and  even  profaned  and  blasphemed,  and  the 
truth  of  his  everlasting  word  and  the  convictions  of  his  Holy 
Spirit  put  aside  by  us  for  the  world  and  its  vanities,  for  our 
own  vain  conceits  and  groundless  imaginations,  as  by  the  Jews 
of  old.    We  cannot,  indeed,  equal  them  in  infidelity,  for  obvious 
reasons.     We  cannot  resist  the  evidence  of  Christ's  miracles 
to  our  senses,  because  they  are  not  wrought  before  our  eyes. 
We  cannot  revile  him  to  his  face.     We  cannot  crucify  him  at 
the  gates  of  Jerusalem.     But  we  can  exceed  their  guilt  in  all 
these  things  by  resisting  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  to  the 
truth  of  the  gospel,  the  convictions  of  our  own  consciences,  the 
concurring  testimony  of  eighteen  hundred  years,  and  the  actual 
witness  of  the  state  of  this  very  people,  who  are  to  this  day 
outcasts  and  unowned,  because  they  disowned  the  only  begotten 
Son  of  God  as  their  promised  Messiah  and  offered  Saviour  ;  and 
we  can  and  do  crucify  him  afresh  every  hour  of  the  day,  and 
put  him  to  an  open  shame  by  leading  unchristian  lives.     This 
Scripture  figure,  so  emphatically  applied,  by  the  apostle  Paul,  to 
ungodly  Christians,  we  are  too  apt  to  consider  as  a  mere  figure 
of  speech,  or,  what  is  more  common,  not  to  consider  it  at  all. 
But  if  there  is  any  truth  in  the  promises  and  threatenings  of 
the  gospel — if  none  whom  God  is  pleased  to  call  to  the  know- 
ledge of  his  grace  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ  can 
excusably  remain  neutral  even  to  the  hopes  and  duties  growing 
out  of  it,  to  the  faith  and  holiness  required  by  it,  then  should  all 
such  most  deeply  fear  incurring  the  particular  guilt  thereby 
denounced,  even  in  a  higher  degree  than  those  very  Jews  who 
crucified  the  Lord  of  glory.  For  it  cannot  be  said  in  our  behalf 
as  was  in  theirs,  that   we  do  it   ignorantly  in  unbelief;  every 
person  under  the  gospel  being  fully  informed  of  the  person, 
office,  and  dignity  of  Jesus   Christ,  the  author  and  finisher  of 
our  faith. 

It  may  be  profitable  for  us  all ;  both  those  who  profess  them- 
selves his  disciples  and   those  who,  though  they  are  spared 


244  REVERENCE    OF    CHRIST. 

only  through  his  intercession  and  provided  with  the  freeness  of 
his  grace  to  tlie  attainment  of  eternal  life,  yet  feel  no  sense  of 
what  they  owe  to  his  love  for  their  souls  ;  to  consider  seriously 
the  two  following  points  : 

First,  the  obligations  we  are  all  under  to  reverence  the  Son 
of  God,  as  the  text  expresses  it. 

Secondly,  in  what  manner  we  shall  best  declare  our  rever- 
ence of  him. 

I.  First,  then,  though  the  reasons  and  arguments  which 
enforce  this  obligation  are  all  of  the  weightiest  nature,  yet  the 
one  referred  to  in  the  text  may  properly  enough  be  considered 
the  chief. 

The  first  argument,  then,  that  calls  upon  us  to  reverence  the 
Son  of  God,  and  consequently  the  message  he  brought  us  from 
the  Father,  is  the  greatness  of  his  character,  the  superlative 
dignity  of  his  person. 

It  was  a  most  natural  expectation  in  the  owner  of  the  vine- 
yard that  his  tenants  would  show  a  peculiar  regard  to  the  last 
messenger  he  sent,  who,  as  his  only  son  and  of  course  his  heir, 
was  next  in  station  and  authority  to  himself.  And  here  we 
may  observe,  my  friends,  how  exactly  the  whole  moral  of  the 
parable  is  made  to  bear  upon  the  most  general  feelings  and 
reasonings  of  our  own  minds,  and  how  it  includes  us  all,  by 
the  judgment  we  unhesitatingly  pass  upon  things  of  a  far  inferior 
kind.  For  just  as  certainly  as  we  should  consider  the  refusal 
of  a  just  claim  aggravated  in  proportion  to  the  dignity  and 
importance  of  the  person  employed  to  make  it,  so  sure  may  we 
be  that  we  condemn  ourselves  by  refusing  or  contemptuously 
disregarding  this  last  and  greatest  of  all  God's  prophets.  And 
certainly  our  reverence  should  always  be  proportioned  to  the 
known  or  supposed  importance  of  its  object.  Now  beyond  all 
dispute,  not  only  in  the  dignity  of  the  messenger  but  in  the 
importance  of  the  message,  the  gospel  far  transcends  any  and 
every  other  interest  whatever.  What,  then,  say  the  Scriptures 
concerning  the  person  and  character  of  Christ  ?  for  the  Scrip- 
tures are  the  only  authority  we  can  safely  follow  in  such  an 
inquiry. 

God,  (says  St.  Paul  in  his  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,)  who  in 


REVERENCE    OP    CHRIST.  245 

time  past  spake  unto  the  fathers  h\j  the  prophets,  hath  in  these  last 
days  spoken  unto  us  by  his  So7i,  n-liom  he  hath  appointed  heir  of 
all  things,  by  ichom  also  he  made  the  worlds,  icho  is  the  brightness 
of  his  glory,  and  upholdeth  all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power,  who 
is  made  so  much  better  than  the  angels,  as  he  hath  by  inheritance 
obtained  a  more  excellent  name  than  they.  And  here  let  me 
observe,  that  we  have  a  most  express  declaration  of  this  apostle 
to  the  divinity  of  our  blessed  Saviour  ;  he  not  only  declares  his 
superiority  to  the  angels,  but  refers  that  superiority  to  a  cause 
perfectly  distinct  from  any  act  of  creation,  to  wit,  to  an  inherited 
and  consequently  inherent  superiority;  than  which  no  other 
mode  of  expression  could  better  have  conveyed  to  our  limited 
understandings  the  true  and  plain  meaning  of  that  fundamental 
article  of  the  Christian  faith,  "the  Son  of  God,  begotten,  not 
made."  So  likewise,  in  writing  to  the  Colossians,  this  same 
apostle  styles  Christ,  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  and  tells 
us,  that  by  him  God  created  all  things  whether  in  heaven  or  in 
earth ;  and  St.  John — who  wrote  the  last  of  all  the  apostles,  and 
lived  to  hear  the  divinity  of  his  adorable  master  doubted  and 
denied — to  meet  this  damnable  heresy,  declares  in  the  outset  of 
his  gospel — In  the  beginning  loas  the  word,  and  the  ivord  loas  with 
God,  and  the  ivord  xoas  God  ;  the  ivord  was  made  flesh  and 
dwelt  among  us;  he  came  unto  his  oicn  and  his  own  received 
received  him  not. 

Now  these  passages  of  Scripture,  with  many  others  to  the 
same  purpose,  though  they  do  not  explain  to  us  the  formal 
nature  or  essential  being  of  this  Son  of  God,  a  subject  which, 
with  our  present  faculties,  we  could  not  be  made  to  compre- 
hend, neither  are  we  in  the  smallest  degree  concerned  to  know 
it ;  yet  they  teach  us  what  is  abundantly  sufficient  as  well  as 
perfectly  intelligible  ;  namely,  that  his  character  is  supremely 
excellent,  his  dignity  supremely  eminent,  far  above  the  number- 
less orders  of  beings  in  the  universe  ;  which  is  unanswerably  a 
most  sufficient  argument  why  we  should  pay  him  the  profound- 
est  reverence. 

Secondly,  we  are  further  bound  to  reverence  this  heavenly 
messenger  from  the  importance  of  the  message  itself  with  which 
he  was  sent  into  the  world.     Now  let  us  ask  ourselves  whether 


246  REVERENCE    OF    CHRIST. 

any  other  than  an  afFah'  of  the  highest  moment,  could  have  in- 
duced the  Almighty  Father  to  employ  in  the  execution  of  it  so 
exalted  a  personage  1  Why,  our  own  principles  of  reasoning 
and  acting  will  answer  the  question  ;  and,  in  truth,  it  was  no- 
thing less  than  our  eternal  salvation,  which  infinite  wisdom  saw 
could  no  otherwise  consistently  be  provided  for,  and  which  infi- 
nite love  undertook  to  perform.  It  was  to  purchase  life  for  con- 
demned sinners  ;  to  reconcile  a  rebel  world  to  a  justly  offended 
sovereign  ;  to  make  satisfaction  to  his  violated  law,  by  suffering 
the  penalty  therein  denounced  against  every  transgression  and 
transgressor  of  it.  It  was  to  command  us  to  forsake  our  sins — 
and  to  assure  us  of  the  divine  mercy  if  we  did  so  ;  to  instruct  us 
in  pure  and  undefiled  religion,  and  to  engage  us  to  all  the  duties 
we  owe  to  God  and  to  each  other,  by  the  clear  revelation  of  a 
future  state,  to  be  adjudged  to  each  one  of  us  for  everlasting 
happiness  or  misery,  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  this  body. 
For  all  which  purposes  it  was  necessary  that  a  body  should  be 
prepared  for  this  heavenly  messenger,  that  in  the  familiar  con- 
verse of  our  nature  he  might  teach  us,  set  us  an  example  of 
patience,  submission,  and  holiness,  to  follow,  and  in  the  very 
nature  which  had  sinned  offer  a  full,  perfect,  and  sufficient 
atonement  and  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  by 
his  death  upon  the  cross. 

Let  the  importance,  therefore,  of  the  errand  on  which  the  Son 
of  God  came  to  us,  the  vital  importance  of  it  especially  to  each 
man's  individual  concern,  be  a  fresh  argument  and  a  prevailing- 
reason  for  paying  him  that  veneration— may  I  not  say  that  grate- 
ful sense  of  benefits  conferred — to  which  he  has  so  just  a  claim. 
Therefore  let  us  give  the  more  earnest  heed  to  the  things  ivhich  ice 
have  heard,  lest  at  any  time  ive  should  let  them  slip.  For  if  the 
word  spoken  by  angels  ivas  steadfast,  and  every  transgression 
received  a  just  recompense,  how  shall  we  escape  if  wc  neglect  so  great 
salvation,  wrought  out  for  and  communicated  to  us,  not  by 
angels,  but  by  the  Lord  of  angels  1 

Thirdly,  all  our  obligations  to  reverence  the  Son  of  God 
are  increased  and  completed  by  the  consideration  that  he  is  the 
last  messenger,  and  his  message  the  last  overture  heaven  will 
send  us.     Last  of  all,  says  the  parable,  he  sent  unto  them  his 


REVERENCE    OF    CHRIST.  247 

Son,  which  might  serve  to  convince  us  that  God  intends  no  fur- 
ther or  other  means  of  salvation  for  us  than  that  made  known  by 
his  Son.  And  surely  if  this  is  not  sufficient,  no  other  that  even 
infinite  wisdom  could  devise,  would  prevail  with  us.  For  more 
gracious  terms  of  reconciliation,  a  more  dignified  or  powerful 
intercessor,  clearer  instructions  in  our  duty,  or  more  glorious 
rewards  or  fearful  punishments,  for  the  performance  or  neglect 
of  it,  are  not  within  the  range  of  possible  expectation.  Let  no 
one,  therefore,  deceive  himself  either  with  vain  words  or  more 
vain  hopes.  Let  no  one  vainly  expect  that  another  Son  will 
come  to  us  from  the  offended  Father,  or  that  we  can  come 
again  to  him  otherwise  than  by  and  through  this  Son  whom  he 
hath  sent.  No,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  it  is  the  last  time,  the 
last  off'er  of  his  mercy,  the  last  trial  of  our  reverence  and 
obedience  ;  and  if  this  be  slighted  tliere  remaineth  no  more  or 
other  sacrifice  for  sins,  but  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judg- 
ment and  fiery  indignation,  ivhich  shall  consume  the  adversaries. 

When  the  husbandmen  in  the  parable  had  refused  submission 
to  their  master's  Son  there  was  nothing  left  but  to  punish  the 
aggravated  guilt  of  all  their  former  wickedness,  and  utterly  to 
expel  them  from  the  vineyai^d.  What,  then,  loill  the  Lord  of  the 
vineyard  do  to  those  husbandmen  is  the  question,  which  each  one 
of  us  should  put  to  ourselves,  as  respects  the  gospel,  and  the 
answer  stands  ready  recorded,  with  which  the  equity  of  our  own 
minds  accords.  He  will  miserably  destroy  those  wicked  men,  and 
will  let  out  his  vineyard  to  others,  who  shall  render  him  the  fruits  in 
their  season.  This  very  vineyard  is  now  let  out  to  us,  my 
hearers,  and  wo  be  unto  us  if  we  take  not  warning  by  the  fate 
of  those  who  were  cast  out  for  refusing  him  who  came  to 
redeem  and  save  them. 

Such  being  our  obligations  to  reverence  the  Son  of  God,  I 
am  to  inquire, 

IL  Secondly,  in  what  manner  we  shall  best  declare  our  rever- 
ence of  him  ;  that  is,  with  what  disposition  of  mind,  with  what 
course  of  external  behaviour,  we  shall  most  truly  manifest  our 
reverence  and  regard  for  him  and  the  message  he  came  to 
deliver  to  us. 

Now  the  first  step  towards  a  due  veneration  of  Christ  and 


248  REVERENCE    OF    ©HRIST. 

his  religion,  is,  seriously  to  consider  what  in  truth  it  is,  the  pur- 
pose it  is  to  answer,  and  our  need  of  such  eflfectual  help.     To 
drown  such  a  reasonable  duty,  either  in  the  cares  or  the  plea- 
sures of  life,  or  by  the  shorter  process  of  unbelief;  to  dismiss 
the  claims  of  our  souls,  and  join  the  great  multitude  who  live 
here  as   if  there  was  no  hereafter ;   no  God,  no  Saviour,  no 
heaven,  no  hell ;    or  if  they  acknowledge  God  and  a  future  state 
yet  will  take  no  pains  to  ascertain  whether  he  has  spoken  to  us, 
and  what  he  has  said  concerning  our  future  interests,  but  risk 
their  eternal  all  upon  the   sandy  foundation  of  some  notion  of 
their  own  shallow  conceptions — why  what  is  this  but  to  count 
ourselves,  and  to  show  that  we  are,  unworthy  of  that  eternal  life 
to  which,  nevertheless,  we  vainly  hope  to  come.     My  hearers, 
see  that  ye  refuse  not  him  that  speakelh  from  heaven,  for  it  is  a 
complete  bar,  while  it  is  persisted  in,  to  all  religious  advance- 
ment, to  all  sense  of  favour  conferred  on  us  through  him,  to  any 
regard  for  his  person,  or  interest  in  the  mercy  he  hath  pur- 
chased for  a  world  of  sinners  ;  it  dries  up  the  very  springs  of 
faith  and  love  in  our  hearts,  for  the  source  of  all  gratitude  is  the 
remembrance    of    our  benefactors,    of    the   favours   we    have 
received  from  them.     And  it  is  infinitely  more  owing  to  inatten- 
tion than  to  ignorance,  that  men  are  so  little  moved  with  the  argu- 
ments of  religion,  so  little  affected,  so  slightly  influenced  by  them. 
We  too  seldom  consider  the  dignified  character  of  that  Son 
of  God  who  was  sent  to  us  by  the  Father,  or  the  commanding 
nature  of  the  business  on  which  he  was  sent,  and  of  course 
forget  and  become  dead  to  the  regards  we  owe  to  his  person, 
as  well  as  his  office.     Whereas  if  these  subjects  were  made 
familiar  to  our  thoughts,  and  thus  came  to  possess  our  hearts, 
which  they  would  surely  soon  do,  they  could  not  fail  to  produce 
those  outward  expressions  of  reverence,  and  that  conscientious 
care  to  fulfil  our  duties,  which  is  the  only  evidence  of  the  reli- 
gious principle  being  formed  within  us. 

It  was  certainly  upon  this  principle  that  our  blessed  Lord 
originally  instituted  the  sacrament  of  the  last  supper,  which  was 
designed  to  cherish  and  keep  alive,  in  the  minds  of  his  disciples, 
the  remembrance  of  himself,  of  his  ministry  upon  earth,  of  the 
relation  he  bears  to  them,  of  the  great  things  he  did  and  suffered 


REVERENCE    OF    CHRIST.  249 

for  them  as  the  proper  foundation  of  that  practical  reverence 
and  regard  they  are  to  pay  him  in  all  holy  conversation  and  godli- 
ness, after  the  bright  example  he  hath  set  them. 

Now  you  are  all  called  and  invited  to  become  his  disciples, 
and  to  learn  of  him  ;  you  have  all  of  you  sufficient  leisure  to 
think  on  these  all  important  subjects,  even  at  home  in  your  own 
houses,  and  with  your  families,  but  especially  by  meeting 
together  for  public  worship,  are  they  presented  and  pressed 
upon  you.  Do  not,  therefore,  waste  that  leisure  in  careless 
indolence  or  sinful  idleness,  or  make  a  preached  gospel  the 
savour  of  death  to  your  souls,  but  wisely  improve  every  oppor- 
tunity God  affords  you,  to  bring  your  heart  more  and  more 
under  the  influence  of  revealed  truth,  and  your  life  under  the 
law  of  faith.  This  is  the  fruit  which  the  Lord  of  the  vineyard 
requires,  and  which  alone  he  will  accept  at  your  hands. 

Had  the  husbandmen  in  the  parable  rightly  considered  who 
the  last  messenger  was  their  master  sent  to  them,  how  just  the 
demand  he  came  to  make  of  them,  what  forbearance  and  indul- 
gence the  Father  had  already  showed  them,  with  the  conse- 
quences that  must  inevitably  follow,  if  they  persisted  in  their 
rebellion — had  they  reflected  at  all  on  these  things,  they  would 
doubtless  have  repented  of  their  past  iniquity,  and  received  him 
with  becoming  marks  of  humiliation  and  sorrow.  But,  alas  ! 
they  did  not  give  themselves  time  to  reflect,  as  soon  as  they  saw 
him  they  determined  to  murder  him.  This  is  the  heir,  come  let 
us  kill  him  and  seize  on  his  inheritance.  And  thus  do  unreflect- 
ing sinners  deny  the  Lord  that  bought  them,  and  full  of  them- 
selves, and  ripe  in  rebellion,  turn  away  from  the  word  of  the 
truth  of  the  gospel,  beholding  no  form  or  comeliness  in  Jesus 
Christ,  that  they  should  desire  him. 

Secondly,  we  must  show  our  reverence  for  the  Son  of 
God  and  for  the  gospel  which  he  brought  to  us  from  his  Father, 
not  only  by  having  and  maintaining  an  habitual  sense  of  its 
excellence  and  importance  in  our  minds,  together  with  the 
practice  of  its  duties  in  our  lives,  but,  also,  by  being  earnest  for 
its  credit  and  advancement  in  the  world,  beginning  with  our 
families  and  branching  out  as  far  as  ability  and  opportunity 
serve.     This  will  lead  us  to  avoid  the  company  and  fellowship 

Vol.  IL— 32 


250  REVERENCE    OP    CHRIST. 

of  all  persons  who,  like  Solomon's  fools,  make  a  mock  at  sin,  or 
treat  religion  scornfully,  or  who  speak  irreverently  of  God,  pro- 
faning his  holy  name,  or  lightly  or  disrespectfully  of  our  Maker 
and  only  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Especially  will  it  lead  us  to 
be  watchful  against  all  such  abominations  in  our  own  families. 

The  very  sound  of  profligate,  profane  discourse,  damps  that 
reverence  for  sacred  subjects  which  almost  every  creature  feels, 
until  corrupted  by  some  such  wicked  art.  With  respect  to 
young  people  more  especially,  the  effect  is  dreadful.  It  destroys 
their  native  diffidence,  sows  the  seeds  of  impiety  in  their  tender 
minds,  draws  out  the  latent  hostility  of  the  carnal  mind  to  God, 
and  is  often  the  first  cause  of  their  everlasting  ruin.  Indeed,  to 
those  who  are  more  advanced  in  life  the  influence  of  such  asso- 
ciates is  always  more  or  less  injurious  ;  for  there  is  an  insensi- 
ble conformity  in  the  thoughts,  words,  and  actions  of  those  who 
live  much  together,  which  marks  distinctly  the  tenour  of  their 
conversation  in  life. 

Let  us  imagine  a  number  of  men  in  a  similar  situation  with 
the  husbandmen  in  the  parable.  Let  us  moreover  suppose  that 
only  some  of  them  had  a  design  to  abuse  their  master  in  the 
manner  there  described,  and  that  these  wanted  to  bring  the 
others  over  to  their  schemes.  They  would  naturally  begin  with 
arguing  them  into  a  contempt  for  their  master,  making  light  of 
his  authority  and  power  to  punish,  ridiculing  their  fears,  scoffing 
at  a  danger  so  remote,  and  inflaming  their  passions  with  the 
present  enjoyments  and  advantages  their  crime  would  put  them 
in  possession  of  By  v/hich  means  they  would  not  only  harden 
themselves,  but  gradually  infuse  their  poison  into  the  hearts  of 
the  better  disposed,  until  they  were  all  mad  enough  to  join  in 
any  desperate  project.  In  like  manner  does  it  come  to  pass  in 
the  world,  where  the  young,  and  thoughtless,  and  comparatively 
innocent  are  exposed  to  the  contagious  compan}'  of  the  profane 
or  practical  despisers  of  Christ  and  his  gospel.  The  impious 
jest,  the  well-turned  ridicule,  the  bold  unbelief,  the  cool  defiance 
of  heaven  and  hell  manifested  by  such  persons,  gradually  over- 
come the  guards  both  of  nature  and  grace,  set  the  passions  in  a 
flame,  and  by  magnifying  the  pleasures  of  a  life  set  free  from 
the  restraints  of  religion,  tempt  them  to  pluck  the  forbidden 


REVERENCE    OF    CHRIST.  251 

fruit,  and  to  become  as  miserable  as  their  tempters.  And  shall 
no  voice  be  lifted  up  in  behalf  of  the  young  and  rising  hope 
of  this  gospel  land,  and  ring  in  the  ears  of  professing  parents 
their  bounden  duty  in  this  respect.  Yes,  my  brethren,  there 
shall  be  one,  who,  however  lightly  esteemed,  shall  not  fail  fear- 
lessly to  counsel  you  to  shut  your  doors  against  the  irreligious 
and  ungodly,  however  amiable  their  manners  or  pleasing  their 
conversation  ;  for  the  master  whom  they  serve  is  ever  on  the 
watch  to  prompt  and  to  give  the  opportunity  to  counteract  your 
pious  care,  and  to  sow  those  bitter  seeds  whose  certain  fruit  is 
weeping,  and  wailing,  and  gnashing  of  teeth. 

Thirdly  and  lastly,  the  strongest  proof  we  can  give  of  our 
reverence  for  the  Son  of  God  will  be,  sincerely  and  thank- 
fully to  own  and  acknowledge  him  in  all  the  dignity  of  his  cha- 
racter, faithfully  to  obey  his  laws,  and  diligently  to  copy  the 
bright  example  he  hath  left  us. 

It  is  set  forth  to  us  in  the  parable,  my  hearers,  that  the  busi- 
ness on  which  the  servants,  and  last  of  all  the  son  himself  was 
sent,  was  to  receive  the  fruits  of  the  vineyard.  In  like  manner 
it  is  required  of  us  to  render  to  our  Master  and  only  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ  those  fruits  of  the  gospel  which  it  was  designed 
to  produce  in  us.  Now  by  those  fruits  the  Scriptures  univer- 
sally mean  the  good  influence  which  religion  has  upon  our  con- 
duct in  life,  in  the  exercise  of  faith,  hope,  and  charity.  Teaching 
us  that  a  holy  and  righteous  conversation  in  the  world  is  as 
essential  to  the  character  of  a  Christian,  as  the  production  of  its 
proper  fruit  is  to  the  value  of  a  tree  in  your  garden ;  and  as 
every  such  tree  that  bears  no  fruit  is  cut  down  and  thrown  into 
the  fire,  so  will  God  finally  destroy  every  man  who  openly  dis- 
claims the  gospel,  or  who  pretends  to  be  religious  while  he  is 
barren  of  good  works. 

And  is  this  the  unalterable  truth  of  heaven's  unchangeable 
decree  1  Then  God  be  merciful  to  this  barren  gospel  land — 
God  be  merciful  to  the  thousands  who  hear  the  joyful  sound  of 
salvation  through  the  Son  of  God,  yet  are  like  the  deaf  adder 
which  will  not  be  charmed.  God  be  merciful  to  those  who,  led 
away  with  the  error  of  the  wicked,  openly  r/euy  the  Lord  mho 
bought  them,  and  not  only  refuse  the  fruits  in  their  season,  but 


252 


REVERENCE    OF    CHRIST. 


join  in  casting  out  the  heir,  and  would  dethrone  him  from  the 
glory  he  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was.  And  God 
be  merciful  to  his  people,  and  to  his  little  flock  in  this  portion  of 
his  vineyard,  and  keep  them  by  his  mighty  power,  through  faith, 
unto  salvation.  Dear  brethren,  let  us  manifest  our  reverence 
for  our  blessed  Lord  by  a  yet  more  earnest  rendering  to  him 
of  the  fruits  of  that  love,  trust,  and  obedience  we  profess  to  him. 
In  this  day  of  rebuke  and  blasphemy,  when  the  love  of  many 
has  waxed  cold,  let  us  cleave  to  our  first  love,  and  honouring 
the  Son  even  as  we  honour  the  Father,  make  all  men  see  ivhat 
is  the  fellowship  of  the  mystery  which  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world  hath  been  hid  in  God,  who  created  all  things  by  Jesus 
Christ,  in  whom  loe  have  boldness  and  access  with  confidence,  by 
the  faith  of  him.  For  this  cause  I  bow  my  knees  unto  the  Father 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  of  whom  the  ivhole  family  in  heaven 
and  earth  is  named,  that  he  looidd  grant  you  according  to  the  riches 
of  his  glory  to  be  strengthened  with  might  by  his  Spirit  in  the 
inner  man ;  that  Christ  may  dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith,  that 
ye,  being  rooted  and  grounded  in  love,  may  be  able  to  comprehend 
with  all  saints  what  is  the  breadth,  and  length,  and  depth,  and 
height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ  which  fasseth  knowledge 
that  ye  might  be  filled  with  all  the  fxdness  of  God. 

JVoic  unto  him  that  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all 
that  we  ask  or  think,  according  to  the  power  that  loorketh  in  us, 
unto  him  be  glory  in  the  Church  by  Jesus  Christ  throughout  all 
ages,  world  without  end.     Amen, 


SERMON  XXII. 


CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST. 


Matthew  x.  32,  33. 


"Whosoever,  therefore,  shall  confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I  confess  also  before 
my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  But  whosoever  shall  deny  me  before  men,  him 
will  I  also  deny  before  my  Father  wluch  is  in  heaven." 

O  that  they  were  loise,  that  they  understood  this,  that  they  would 
consider  their  latter  end,  was  the  earnest  and  affectionate  apos- 
trophe of  Moses  to  the  Israelites,  under  the  prophetic  view 
which  he  had  of  their  defection  from  God,  in  becoming  indiffer- 
ent and  insensible  to  the  wonders,  providences,  and  judgments, 
by  which  they  were  declared  his  peculiar  people.  And  is  there 
not  occasion,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  for  a  surprise  and  a 
concern  of  an  equally  impressive  character  when  we  look 
round  on  the  state  and  condition  of  this  gospel  land,  and  behold 
the  multitudes,  who,  dismissing  from  their  consideration  the 
claims  of  Jesus  Christ  to  their  love,  veneration  and  obedience, 
live  here  as  if  hereafter  had  no  account  to  settle  with  them 
individually,  and  eternity  no  retributions  commensurate  with  its 
everlasting  nature.  Is  it  not  a  heart-sinking  prospect  to  survey 
any  assembly  of  Christian  people,  and  count  up  what  a  small 
proportion  of  them  are  known,  even  by  outward  profession,  as 
the  disciples  of  Christ,  or  have,  in  any  shape  whatever,  brought 
themselves  within  the  terms  upon  which  alone  heaven  offers  its 
mei-cy  and  proposes  its  rewards  to  our  fallen  race  ;  to  behold 
the  thousands  who  from  infancy  even  to  grey  hairs,  have  had  it 
rung  in  their  ears,  that  there  is  but  one  only  name  and  means 
under  heaven  for  men  to  betake  themselves  to  for  reconciliation 
with  God,  yet  are,  nevertheless,  trifling  away  their  little  and 
daily  shortening  span  of  being  in  the  frivolous  vanities  and 
insipid  dissipations  of  folly  and  fashion  ;  or  more  gravely  occu- 
pied, are  exclusively  devoted  to  the  god  of  this  world,  and  the 
portion  he  has  to  bestow  ;  or,  still  more  shamefully  abandoned, 


254  CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST, 

defy  heaven's    King  with  their  daily  blasphemies,  and  outrage 
even  the  decency  of  a  world  that  lietli  in  wickedness,  by  the 
grossness  of  their  impiety.     Alas  !  my  hearers,  is  this  picture 
overcharged,  or  is  the  record  too  true  to  be  falsified  by  all  the 
subterfuges  of  lies  which  the  practical  deniers  of  Christ  and 
his  gospel,  of  God  and  his  Son,  resort  to,  to  hide  from  them- 
selves the  direct  and  positive  bearing  of  the  awful  declaration 
contained  in  my  text.     If  the  offer  of  mercy  to  sinners  is  limited 
by  conditions  to  be  performed  on  their  part,  and  the  conditions 
themselves  be  openly  and  clearly  propounded  in  the  offer,  then 
must  this  mighty  question  be  Avithin  the  reach  of  every  man's 
determination  who  has  access  to  the  record  ;    and  if  among 
those  conditions  there  should  be  one  paramount,  to  which  all  the 
others  are  subordinate  and  consequential,  then  must  it  be   still 
more  readily  determined  to  which  of  the  two  grand  divisions  of 
this  world's  population  we  belong.     To  think  otherwise  of  what 
heaven  in  its  mercy  and  wisdom  hath   revealed  to  us,  for  our 
government  and  direction,  for  our  comfort  and  assurance,  is  to 
defeat  the  whole  gracious  plan  of  man's  salvation,  to  throw  the 
veil  of  mystery  over  what  is  plain  and  practical,  and  by  our  own 
act  to  bring  a  cloud  over  that  Sun  of  Righteousness  which  hath 
arisen  upon  the  world  with  healing  in  his  wings.     Yet  experi- 
ence and  observation  prove  to  us  that  it  is  the  case  with  thou- 
sands, who,  on  the  gratuitous  assumption  of  a  mysteriousness  in 
practical  religion,  settle  down  either  in  unbelief,  or,  what  is  just 
as  fatal,  some  unwarranted  scheme  of  general  mercy  which  is  to 
prove  effectual  for  their  eternal  happiness,  even   though  un- 
sought and  unobtained.  Hence  the  carelessness  and  indifference 
to  the  gospel  and  its  message  of  mercy.     Hence  the  coldness 
and  deadness  to  the  high  interests  of  eternity,  and  to  the  only 
means  whereby  to  secure  its  unfading  glories,  so  prevalent  in 
the  world  ;    and  hence  the  contemptuous   neglect  of    Jesus 
Christ,  the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith,  which  stamps  the 
ungrateful  character  of  man  with  its  most  odious  feature. 

Had  such  persons,  indeed,  never  heard  the  words  of  my  text, 
had  they  no  knowledge  of  the  nature  and  office  of  Him  who 
uttered  them,  the  case  were  different — but,  alas  !  it  is  not  so. 
They  have  grown  up  under  the  sound  of  the  gospel ;  thousands 


CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST.  255 

of  times  has  it  been  propounded  to  them,  and  their  consciences 
have  borne  witness  to  its  truth,  but  they  have  put  it  away  from 
them  ;  they  have  seen  of  all  descriptions  of  persons,  from  the 
most  gifted  and  cultivated  grade  of  intellect  down  to  the  poorest 
and  most  illiterate  of  their  fellows,  brought  under  the  influence 
of  Christ's  religion,  and  counting  it  their  highest  privilege  to 
confess  the  name  of  Jesus,  not  only  under  the  favourable 
circumstances  of  established  Christianity,  but  in  the  face  of  tor- 
tures and  death,  as  their  only  but  all  sufficient  hope  and  assu- 
rance of  eternal  life.  These  things  have  they  seen  and  known, 
but  alas  !  they  have  not  considered  them,  like  the  Israelites  of 
old,  they  have  never  brought  them  to  bear  upon  the  deep 
anxieties  of  a  dying  bed,  upon  the  eternal  interests  of  an  immor- 
tal soul  about  to  appear  before  its  Judge  laden  with  sin. 

But,  my  hearers,  ice  must  all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ.  He  is  not  only  offered  as  our  Saviour,  but  is  constituted 
our  Judge.  As  he  hath  bought  and  ransomed  us  so  will  he 
alone  determine  our  everlasting  condition  according  to  that 
unchangeable  word  which  he  hath  spoken  unto  us.  In  that 
word  you  hear  it  declared  by  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead,  that 
on  the  confession  or  denial  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  us  in 
this  world  will  depend  our  condition  in  the  world  to  come.  Very 
immediate,  therefore,  is  the  interest  which  we  all  have  in  settlino- 
what  is  comprised  in  this  Christian  duty,  lest  in  the  most  trying 
moment  which  either  time  or  eternity  shall  ever  witness  we  find 
our  expectations  disappointed,  our  hopes  confounded,  and  all 
the  day  dreams  of  our  own  righteousness  and  of  God's  mercy 
swept  away  by  the  irreversible  /  never  knew  you  of  our  rio-ht- 
eous  judge. 

I  shall,  therefore,  endeavour  to  show  you  what  we  are  to 
understand  by  the  terms  confess  and  deny,  as  here  used  by  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  then  conclude  with  some  practical 
infercKces  from  the  subject.  Not,  my  friends,  that  there  is  one 
among  you  to  whom  the  very  sound  of  the  words  does  not 
convey  the  awful  import  of  their  meaning  and  application  to 
your  individual  state  and  condition,  as  respects  the  account  you 
have  to  give  in  for  all  God's  mercies,  and  especially  for  the 
grace  of    the    gospel — no — but    if,  happily,  through    God's 


256  CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST. 

good  blessing  I  may  win  some  of  you  over  to  count  the  cost  at 
which  you  sacrifice  to  the  world  the  present  peace  and  solid 
comfort  of  the  gospel,  and  the  future  acknowledgement  of  him 
who  is  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords. 

Whosoever,  therefore,  shall  confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I 
confess  also  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  But  ivhoso- 
ever  shall  deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  deny  before  my 
Father  ichich  is  in  heaven. 

In  common  speech  to  confess  or  deny  means,  to  acknowledge 
or  disown  something  that  is  affirmed  or  offered ;  and  though 
the  words  as  used  in  my  text  might  with  perfect  safety  be  thus 
limited  in  their  application,  seeing  the  gospel  is  the  record  of 
the  testimony  which  God  hath  given  to  the  world  concern- 
ing the  person  and  office  of  Jesus  Christ  ;  yet  in  the  lan- 
guage and  usage  of  Scripture,  they  carry  with  them  a  more 
extended  and  inclusive  meaning,  involving  not  only  acknow- 
ledgment or  denial,  but  acceptance  and  rejection  likewise, 
together  with  the  temper  and  disposition  of  mind  with  which  we 
act.  Hence,  to  comprehend  the  full  force  of  this  passage  of 
Scripture,  we  must  bear  in  mind  what  it  is  that  is  proposed  to 
us,  to  be  acknowledged  or  disowned,  received  or  rejected,  with 
the  ground  or  reason  on  which  the  proposition  is  constructed. 
Now,  as  this  involves  the  whole  of  that  revelation  which  God 
has  made  to  us,  it  includes  our  entire  acceptance  or  rejection 
of  it.  In  this  no  qualification  whatever  can  be  admitted,  not 
only  because  of  its  author,  but  because  each  part  is  so  con- 
nected and  interwoven  with  all  the  rest,  that  the  minutest  and 
apparently  most  unimportant  circumstance  could  not  be  with- 
drawn without  injuriously  affecting  the  whole.  In  the  most 
extended  sense  of  the  text,  therefore,  to  confess  Jesus  Christ 
is,  with  a  thankful  believing  spirit  to  embrace  the  message  of 
mercy  God  hath  sent  to  us  by  him  as  the  foundation  of  our 
faith,  the  ground  of  our  hope,  and  the  rule  of  our  life.  While 
actually  to  reject  revelation,  or  carelessly  to  neglect  the  mighty 
interests  therein  made  known  to  us,  is  in  the  same  sense  to 
deny  him,  to  treat  with  contempt  the  condescending  interposi- 
tion of  heaven  in  our  behalf,  and  to  bar  ourselves  out  from  any 
possible  benefit  from  this  great  salvation. 


CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST.  257 

To  set  forth,  however,  more  at  large,  the  particulars  in  which 
the  confession  of  Jesus  Christ  mentioned  in  my  text  con- 
sists, we  must  observe. 

First,  that  it  includes  the  acknowledgment  of  his  divine 
nature — Immanuel,  God  loitJi  us,  or  in  our  nature  ;  that  is  to 
say,  that  the  Second  Person  in  the  Trinity  emptied  himself  of 
his  essential  glory,  had  a  body  prepared  for  him,  and  came 
down  from  heaven  to  this  ruined  world  to  complete  the  atone- 
ment he  had  undertaken  to  make  for  the  sins  of  the  creature, 
and  redeem  fallen  man  from  the  curse  of  the  law  which  he  had 
broken,  becoming,  in  consequence,  an  alien  and  an  enemy 
to  God,  the  slave  of  sin,  and  the  prey  of  death,  both  temporal 
and  eternal. 

This  acknowledgment  of  Jesus  Christ  as  God  over  all, 
blessed  for  ever,  is  fundamental,  my  hearers,  and  lies  at  the 
very  threshold  of  any  and  all  saving  faith.  For  however  high 
our  imaginations  may  soar  in  the  idea  of  created  excellence — 
however  omnipotent  and  effectual  we  admit  the  will  of  God  to 
be  in  the  choice  and  appointment  of  the  means  to  the  fulfilment 
of  his  purposes,  still  there  is  a  flaw  in  our  title  to  eternal  life, 
my  brethren,  if  he  through  whom  alone  we  hope  for  it  and  have 
even  now  the.  assurance  of  it,  hath  it  not  in  himself.  Yes,  my 
hearers,  if  he  who  died  for  my  sins  on  Calvary  was  not  God  in 
all  his  essential  properties,  clothed  in  my  mortal  nature,  then  is 
there  no  atonement  yet  made  for  them  adequate  to  their  infinite 
demerit  in  the  eye  of  sovereign  purity  and  holiness  :  I  am  yet 
in  my  sins,  I  am  yet  unredeemed,  nor  will  the  hope  I  entertain 
equal  the  weight  of  a  feather  to  counterpoise  their  damning 
nature.  But  blessed  be  God,  my  brethren,  it  is  not  so ;  for 
he  that  believeth  hath  the  witness  in  himself  that  God  hath  given  to 
us  eternal  life,  and  this  life  is  in  his  Son — and  this  is  his  com- 
mandment, that  all  men  should  honour  the  Son  even  as  they 
honour  the  Father. 

To  disown  the  deity  of  the  Saviour,  then,  or  to  pervert  the 
testimony  which  God  the  Father  hath  given  of  it  by  God  th^' 
Holy  Ghost,  or  to  qualify  with  any  shade  of  creatureship  this 
only  foundation  of  Christian  hope,  is  to  deny  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  just  such  a  denial  too,  as  will  render  all  other  sin 

Vol..  II.~33 


258  CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST. 

needless  to  draw  from  the  lips  of  the  glorified  Jesus,  the  awful 
rejection  on  his  part,  /  never  knew  you.  O  my  dear  brethren 
and  hearers,  be  upon  your  guard  against  the  many  vain  talkers 
and  deceivers,  who  are  once  more  at  work  to  overturn  this  sure 
foundation  stone  of  the  Catholic  faith ;  arm  yourselves  with  ike 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  and  in  the  more  sure  word  of  prophecy y 
behold  him  spoken  of  both  as  God  and  man,  and,  therefore,  just 
such  a  mediator  as  our  case  needed,  just  such  a  day's  man 
betwixt  God  and  us,  as  might  lay  his  hand  upon  both  in  the 
great  controversy  of  this  world's  rebellion.  Cast  the  anchor  of 
your  soul  in  this  sure-holding  ground,  and  then  let  infidelity 
rage,  you  shall  not  be  moved  away  from  the  hope  of  the  gospel, 
you  shall  not  be  shaken  though  high  and  gifted  men  set  their 
seal  to  the  falsehood  ;  and  in  a  coming  day,  from  which  I  counsel 
you  never  to  turn  away  your  thoughts,  when  all  the  proud,  and 
all  that  do  wickedly  shall  be  stubble,  then  shall  the  well  done  my 
good  and  faithful  servant  of  thy  Lord  and  thy  God,  confess  and 
own  thee  before  his  Father  and  the  holy  angels.  O  glorious 
and  blessed  hope.  Who  that  feels  it  but  must  lift  up  his  voice 
against  this  damnable  heresy,  which  wrenches  from  fallen  man 
both  time  and  eternity. 

Secondly,  thus  owning  Jesus  Christ  as  the  eternal  and 
only  begotten  Son  of  God,  we  must  witness  this  good  confession 
of  him,  by  openly  and  heartily  embracing  the  religion  he  hath 
established  in  the  world,  and  following  the  holy  example  he  hath 
set  us. 

That  this  is  a  reasonable  duty,  the  dignity  of  his  person,  the 
nature  of  his  office,  and  the  unspeakable  benefits  conferred  on 
us  by  and  through  hiin,  demonstrate,  independently  of  any  future 
consequences,  whether  good  or  bad.  What,  then,  let  me  ask, 
should  be  the  impressiveness  of  this  duty  upon  our  hearts,  when 
we  read,  as  we  do  in  the  text,  that  an  open  profession  of 
Christ's  religion  before  the  world  is  essential  to  our  reaping  any 
benefit,  either  here  or  hereafter,  by  what  he  hath  done  and  suf- 
fered for  us.  Whosoever  shall  confess  or  deny  me  before  men,  him  will 
I  confess  or  deny,  accordingly,  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 
And  is  it  so,  my  hearers,  that  simple  failure  to  profess  ourselves 
openly  to  be  the  disciples  of  the  crucified  Jesus,  will  pass  us  to 


CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST.  259 

the  left  hand  on  the  great  day  of  eternity?  That  however 
orderly  and  exemplary  our  lives  may  have  been,  however  free 
from  the  great  and  crying  enormities  of  the  openly  profane  and 
ungodly — that  however  the  praise  of  men  may  have  followed  us, 
this  one  neglect  shall  stamp  us  as  deniers  of  God  and  his 
Christ  1  Yes,  it  is  so  ;  as  surely  as  heaven  is  now  recording 
the  thoughts  of  every  heart  in  this  congregation,  it  is  so  ; 
because  the  failure,  however  unimportant  it  may  seem,  is  direct 
rebellion  against  heaven's  King,  and  saying  in  so  many  words  ice 
will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us. — It  is  so,  because  it  is 
direct  evidence  that  we  are  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. — 
It  is  so,  because  it  demonstrates  that  the  world,  in  some  of  its 
delusions,  has  more  hold  upon  our  affections  than  the  honour  of 
God,  or  the  eternal  interests  of  our  immortal  souls. — It  is  so, 
because  it  is  in  pointed  disobedience  to  the  express  command  of 
the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith. 

But  do  the  Scriptures  speak  thus  decidedly  upon  this  point  1 
Yes,  verily.  Wherefore  God,  also,  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and 
given  him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  of 
Jesus  every  knee  should  how,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth, 
and  things  under  the  earth,  and  that  every  tongue  shoidd  confess 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father. 
Yet  have  I  set  my  king  upon  my  holy  hill  of  Zion.  Whosoever 
shall  be  ashamed  of  me  and  of  my  words,  of  him  shall  the  Son  of 
man  be  ashamed  when  he  shall  come  in  his  own  glory,  and  in  his 
Father's,  and  of  the  holy  angels.  If  any  man  icill  he  my  disciple, 
let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me.  What, 
then,  becomes  of  the  delusion  under  which  so  many  labour, 
who  in  the  main  are  not  actually  opposed  to  the  religion  of  the 
gospel,  and  even  cherish  something  like  hope  towards  God 
through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whilst  they  are  unknown  to 
any  Christian  profession  1  What  possible  excuse  can  be  made 
for  them  in  this  neglect,  when  the  many  express  texts  of  Scrip- 
ture which  bear  upon  the  point  are  strengthened  and  enforced 
by  the  very  nature  of  the  subject,  and  by  the  positive  declara- 
tion of  our  Lord  himself,  that  in  the  mighty  strife  between  light 
and  darkness,  between  sin  and  holiness,  between  heaven  and 
hell,  for  our  souls,  there  can  be  no  neutrality  permitted,  we 


260  CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST. 

must  of  necessity  take  sides,  and  that  openly,  so  as  to  be  known 
as  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ,  or  confederates  and  servants  of 
the  devil.  He  that  is  not  for  me  is  against  me,  saith  the  Saviour, 
and  he  that  galhereth  not  'with  me  scattereth  abroad.  Do  non- 
professors  hear  this  and  yet  continue  unconcerned  ]  Do  the 
wavering  and  double  minded  hear  it,  and  not  burst  through  the 
cobweb  excuses  which  keep  them  in  the  verge  of  sin  and 
death  1  Does  the  careless  and  thoughtless  sinner,  who  is 
openly  fighting  against  God,  hear  it,  without  realizing  the 
inevitable  doom  that  awaits  him  1  Will  any  plead  ignorance  of 
the  conditions  on  which  salvation  is  offered  1  Why,  on  such  an 
interest  as  eternity,  the  very  excuse  condemns  him  who  makes 
it.  Will  any  one  say  that  they  choose  and  prefer  damnation  1 
No,  not  one.  Yet  they  could  not  take  a  more  certain  method 
to  ensure  it  than  to  deny  the  Lord  that  bought  them.  Oh  ! 
what  a  deep  and  desperate  delusion  has  the  god  of  this  world 
spread  over  the  minds  of  them  that  believe  not,  lest  the  light  of  the 
glorious  gospel  of  Christ,  ivho  is  the  image  of  God,  should  shine 
unto  them.  Oh  !  how  many  amiable  and  estimable  persons  there 
are,  of  whom  every  thing  that  is  lovely  and  of  good  report  can  be 
witnessed  by  all  who  know  them,  who  are  yet  unknown  to  the 
Lord  Jesus,  as  confessors  of  his  only  saving  name.  Oh  !  what  a 
death-doing  mischief  it  is,  that  the  men  of  name  and  note  among 
us,  of  wealth  and  influence,  of  learning  and  leisure,  think  scorn 
of  confessing  the  name  of  Christ,  and  never  consider  the 
deadly  blow  which  their  descending  example  inflicts  upon  reli- 
gion and  morals,  and  upon  the  peace  and  order  of  social  life  ; 
nor  yet  of  the  awful  account  they  have  to  give  in,  in  this  respect, 
for  themselves  and  others.  O  that  they  were  wise,  that  they 
understood  this,  that  they  loould  consider  their  latter  end. 

The  open  and  outward  confession  of  the  name  of  Christ, 
though  in  itself  of  such  importance  as  to  render  useless  what- 
ever else  we  do,  this  being  refused,  yet  is  no  otherwise  effectual 
to  our  salvation,  my  hearers,  than  as  it  binds  us  to  the  profession 
and  practice  of  his  religion.  Whatever  he  hath  done  and  com- 
manded, therefore,  that  are  we  to  observe  and  do  ;  and  this  not 
only  once  or  occasionally,  but  constantly,  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  our  pilgrimage  here.     For  he  hath  set  us  an  example 


CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST.  261 

that  we  should  follow  his  steps.  Here,  then,  my  brethren,  the 
whole  personal  history  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  set  forth  as  the 
model  by  which  we  are  to  frame  and  fashion  the  course  of  our 
lives.  .  Whatever  of  patient,  prayerful  submission  to  the  will  of 
God  was  manifested  by  him,  must,  in  our  measure  and  degree, 
be  exemplified  by  us.  Whatever  of  non-conformity  to  the 
world,  in  its  vain  and  vicious  attractions  to  power  and  pleasure, 
whatever  of  self-denial,  humility,  meekness,  and  holiness  shone 
in  his  conversation  in  the  world,  must  mark  our  course  through 
its  temptations,  provocations,  and  disappointments.  Whatever  of 
mercy,  benevolence,  ready  forgiveness  of  injuries,  and  righteous- 
ness in  rendering  to  all  their  dues,  was  shown  and  observed 
by  him,  must  also  be  shown  and  steadily  followed  after  by  those 
who  would  be  his  disciples  indeed.  As  he  fulfilled  all  the  public 
and  private  duties  enjoined  by  the  Jewish  religion,  so  must  we 
be  found  walking  in  all  the  commandments  and  ordinances  of 
that  which  he  hath  established  in  his  Church,  not  only  as  trials  of 
our  obedience,  but  as  means  of  his  grace.  That  these  are 
required  of  all  who  name  the  name  of  Christ,  and  hope  for  a 
share  in  his  heavenly  kingdom,  is  clear  beyond  controversy,  as 
it  also  is,  that  only  through  the  power  and  grace  of  our  Redeemer 
can  fallen  creatures  be  furnished  to  fulfil  them.  How,  then,  let 
me  ask,  can  those  who  deny  the  Saviour,  by  refusing  themselves 
to  the  profession  of  his  religion  and  the  participation  of  its  ordi- 
nances, the  utmost  of  whose  acknowledgment  of  him  is  occa- 
sional attendance  on  the  public  worship  he  has  instituted,  in 
whose  families  the  voice  of  prayer  and  praise  is  unknown,  how 
can  such,  I  say,  entertain  the  slightest  hope  either  of  grace  to 
perform  their  duties,  or  of  mercy  to  obtain  acceptance  for  such 
poor,  broken  services  as  the  best  of  us  can  render.  And  yet 
talk  with  such  persons  in  a  more  serious  moment,  and  you  will 
find  a  sort  of  careless  unformed  reliance  upon  Christ  and  his 
merits,  for  their  future  happiness,  or  rather  for  their  escape  from 
future  misery  ;  or  see  them  at  the  approach  of  that  hour  when 
this  world  and  all  its  promises  is  about  to  fail  them,  and  you  will 
find  them  as  busy  and  as  earnest  in  their  calls  upon  the  Saviour, 
as  intent  upon  the  forlorn  hope  of  a  death-bed  repentance,  as 
eager  to  grasp  at  his  sufficiency  to  save  as  if  the  name  of  Christ 


262  CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST. 

acted  like  a  charm,  and  the  mighty  purpose  which  brought  him 
from  heaven  to  earth,  stretched  him  upon  the  cross,  and  con- 
signed him  to  death,  could  safely  be  sported  with  by  the  rebels  he 
came  to  redeem.  Oh!  the  deceitfulness  of  sin.  Oh!  the  perverse- 
ness  of  the  unrenewed  heart.  Oh !  the  deadly  enmity  of  the  carnal 
mind,  even  against  a  God  of  love  and  salvation.  Gracious 
Lord  put  forth  thy  Almighty  grace,  and  quicken  us  all  to  our 
duties  and  privileges  as  Christians. 

Thirdly,  our  confession  of  Jesus  Christ  must  be  witnessed 
in  the  face  of  persecution,  tortures,  and  death,  should  we  thereto 
be  called.  He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than  me,  is  not 
tBorthy  of  me — and  he  that  loveth  son  or  daughter  more  than  me, 
is  not  worthy  of  me.  Yea,  and  he  that  hateth  not  his  oivn  life  also, 
he  cannot  be  my  disciple.  Therefore,  he  that  by  denying  me 
jindeth  his  life,  or  any  other  present  good,  shall  lose  it — and  he 
that  loseth  his  life,  or  any  other  present  good,  for  my  sake,  shall 
find  it.  Hence,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  we  may  learn  to  esti- 
mate the  vital  importance  of  an  open  profession  and  constant 
perseverance  in  the  faith  of  the  gospel.  For  if  the  Christian, 
who,  to  avoid  persecution,  concealed  his  profession,  or  at  the 
stake,  overcome  by  the  terrors  of  a  cruel  death,  and  to  escape 
from  it,  denied  and  renounced  his  Lord  and  Master,  did  by  per- 
sisting in  such  denial,  blot  his  name  out  of  the  book  of  life,  how 
much  more  shall  the  same  righteous  principle  sweep  into  perdi- 
tion those  who  are  either  afraid  or  ashamed  to  take  upon  them 
the  light  and  easy  yoke  which  our  Redeemer  hath  laid  upon  us. 
If,  indeed,  the  fires  of  persecution  were  let  loose  upon.us,  though 
there  could  be  no  excuse  there  would  be  more  pity  and  com- 
passion for  those  who  thus  barter  eternity  for  time.  But  where 
neither  loss,  nor  disgrace,  nor  suffering  is  to  be  encountered, 
how  shall  we  not  rather  receive  greater  damnation,  if  we  con- 
tinue to  put  away  from  our  hearts  the  solemn  warning  and 
express  condition  of  my  text —  Whosoever,  therefore,  shall  confess 
me  before  men,  him  will  I  confess  also  before  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven.  But  whosoever  shall  deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also 
deny  before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

In  this  short  passage  of  Scripture  what  a  wide  range  of  thought 
is  opened  to  us  my  friends.     Yet  through  whatever  varieties  of 


CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST.  263 

required  faith  and  commanded  duty  it  may  lead  our  meditations,  it 
ends  in  that  awful  close  when  an  assembled  world  shall  stand  before 
its  Judge,  and  the  confession  or  denial  of  us  by  Jesus  Christ, 
be  conclusive  to  each  one  for  happiness  or  misery  eternal.  And 
it  binds  us  down  to  the  great  master  principle  by  which  our 
acceptance  or  rejection  will  then  be  determined — faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  pardon,  life,  and  salvation,  openly  pro- 
fessed, steadfastly  persisted  in,  and  bearing  fruit  unto  holiness. 

What  shall  we  say,  then,  to  these  things,  my  hearers  1  What 
is  the  only  improvement  that  we  can  all  make  of  them  ?  Why 
this — Let  us  no  longer  be  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  ! 
Take  the  Redeemer's  yoke  upon  you  as  the  first  and  indispensa- 
ble step  to  the  attainment  of  his  grace,  for  while  you  refuse  to 
come  to  him  it  is  in  vain  to  expect  any  help  at  his  hand.  Learn 
of  him  by  reading,  meditation,  and  prayer  ;  and  the  teaching  of 
his  Holy  Spirit  shall  guide  you  on  your  way  and  show  you 
that  all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth.  He  will 
strengthen  you  to  overcome  the  world  in  the  fear  of  its  scoff  and 
in  the  snare  of  its  unhallowed  pleasures  and  pursuits.  He  will 
lead  you  through  all  the  wonders  of  a  spiritual  change,  from 
faith  to  faith,  and  from  grace  to  glory,  till  a  loell  done  from  your 
heavenly  Master,  Almighty  Saviour,  and  righteous  Judge,  shall 
crown  your  repentance  and  renewed  obedience  with  eternal  life. 

And  you,  my  professing  brethren,  whose  names  are  written  in 
the  Lamb's  book  of  life,  while  you  take  to  yourselves  the  holy 
comfort  of  his  promise  in  the  text,  let  it  arm  you  with  strength 
and  engage  you  with  affection  to  walk  worthy  of  it,  that  being 
found  in  all  the  commandments  and  ordinances  of  the  Lord  blame- 
less, your  light  may  so  shine  before  men  as  to  adorn  the  doctrine  of 
God  our  Saviour  in  all  things. 

Much  depends  upon  your  example,  my  Christian  brethren,  for 
the  praise  or  reproach  of  the  gospel,  for  the  advancement  of  the 
Redeemer's  kingdom,  or  the  growth  of  that  infidel  spirit  which 
threatens  the  downfall  of  all  religion  in  the  casting  away  of  the 
only  hope  which  heaven  in  its  mercy  has  vouchsafed  to  fallen 
man,  in  the  Lord  our  righteousness.  Show  yourselves,  then,  a 
living  epistle  of  Christ  to  be  read  of  all  men,  in  life  and  con- 
versation conformed  to  the  gospel  of  Christ,  and  while  you 


264  CONFESSION    OF    CHRIST. 

encourage  yourselves  in  the  holy  comfort  of  your  acceptance 
in  the  beloved,  rejoice  with  trembling,  for  you  are  yet  on  trial, 
and  he  who  hath  promised  to  confess  you  before  God  warns 
you  that  not  every  one  that  saith  to  him  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  his  Father 
which  is  in  heaven.  Of  doing  that  will  our  blessed  Saviour  hath 
set  us  a  most  pure  example.  By  that,  then,  as  your  polar  star 
steer  your  course  through  the  trials  and  temptations  of  this  world. 
To  that,  as  your  copy,  labour  and  strive  to  bring  both  your  out- 
ward life  and  inward  spirit,  that  the  mind  which  was  in  him 
being  in  you,  you  may  rise  with  him  to  the  life  immortal,  and 
pass  to  a  full  reward  in  glory  and  blessedness  for  ever,  through 
the  merit  and  righteousness,  the  power  and  grace  of  this  Jesus 
our  Lord  and  our  God  ;  to  whom  with  God  the  Father,  and  God 
the  Holy  Ghost,  three  persons  and  one  God,  be  universal 
glory  and  praise  world  without  end  ! 


SERMON  XXIII. 

t^AlTII    IN    CHRIST    THE    ONLY    CONDITION    OF    SALVATION. 

John  viii.  24,  last  clause. 
"  For  if  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins." 

It  is  a  strong  confirmation  of  the  external  proofs  we  are 
furnished  with  of  the  divine  original  of  Christianity,  that  its  lead- 
ing truths  and  fundamental  doctrines  should  be  the  full  and  clear 
disclosure  of  those  original,  indelible,  and  universal  impressions 
on  the  heart  of  man  which  are  independent  of  the  fortuitous 
circumstances  of  country,  complexion,  and  education.  And  I 
have  often  thought,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  that  when  Chris- 
tian navigators,  in  the  first  range  of  discovery,  found  continents 
and  islands  peopled  with  beings  like  themselves,  though  of  a 
strange  speech  and  different  colour,  when  they  saw  the  priest, 
the  altar,  and  the  victim,  invariably  accompanying  their  worship 
of  an  unknown  but  acknowledged  God,  they  must  have  felt  the 
deepest  conviction  of  a  common  origin,  a  common  nature,  a 
common  guilt,  and  common  hope  ;  they  must  have  seen  revela- 
tion confirmed,  and  as  the  new  wine  is  found  in  the  cluster  so  was 
the  cross  of  Christ,  and  a  propitiation  for  personal  guilt  by 
the  blood  of  another,  shadowed  out  in  their  ignorant  supersti- 
tions as  the  one  only  hope  of  our  fallen  race. 

And  may  not  we,  my  friends,  by  an  honest  attention  to  the 
frame  of  our  own  spirits,  to  what  passes  within  us,  when  serious 
thought  realizes  the  condition  of  our  being,  the  account  we  have 
each  to  give  in  to  God  for  his  gifts  of  nature  and  grace,  and  when 
conscience  summons  up  in  dread  array  the  actual  sins  and  shame- 
ful neglects  we  are  guilty  of  towards  our  Maker,  or  when  danger 
surprises  guilt  into  fear  and  sinks  the  boldest  among  us  into 
dismay  at  the  near  prospect  of  a  death  bed  unprovided  for — may 
not  these  and  the  many  other  intimations  which  the  still,  smal^ 
voice  of  God  now  whispers  to  our  hearts,  prompt  us  all  to  inquire 

Vol.  II.— 34 


266  FAITH  IN  CHRIST 

seriously  into  our  state,  to  seek  after  the  best  information  we 
can  obtain,  and  to  try  what  is  presented  to  us  as  a  message  from 
heaven  by  its  outward  proofs,  by  the  internal  witness  we  all 
have  in  its  agreement  with  our  previous  impressions,  and  by 
its  fitness  to  relieve  our  most  pressing  wants,  in  the  cheering  light 
it  sheds  over  the  otherwise  dark  and  anxious  anticipations  of  a 
future  being,  and  in  the  fruit  of  its  truth  believed  and  its  counsel 
followed.  Would  not  this  be  the  part  of  prudence  as  well  as 
interest  on  so  momentous  and  imposing  a  subject.  And  how 
can  any  man  be  said  to  have  acted  an  honest  or  even  a  rational 
part  by  his  immortal  soul  who  has  not  made  a  sincere  and  per- 
severing effort,  under  the  direction  of  the  gospel,  to  secure  its 
hope  and  enjoy  its  comfort. 

If  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins,  says  a 
messenger  from  heaven,  accredited  to  our  senses  by  all  that  can 
avouch  the  authority  of  heaven,  and  to  our  hearts  by  every 
impression  which  truth,  duty,  and  interest  can  give  to  feeling 
and  consciousness.  And  what  do  we,  too  many  of  us,  but  set  to 
work  to  invalidate  the  testimony  rather  than  examine  the  proofs 
— to  dispute  the  dignity  of  the  messenger  rather  than  consider 
the  message  itself — to  cavil  at  the  conditions  rather  than  thank- 
fully to  embrace  a  free  and  gracious  offer  of  mercy  and  salva- 
tion— to  enlist  the  powers  and  faculties,  not  of  rational  but  of 
rebellious  creatures,  and  the  stores  and  resources,  not  of  wisdom, 
but  of  science  falsely  so  called — to  obscure  and  resist  the  truth 
rather  than  to  promote  the  present  and  eternal  welfare  of  all 
around  us,  and  the  glory  of  the  Giver  of  every  good  and  perfect 
gift  to  his  creatures  ;  while  by  so  doing  we  contribute  to  bring]a 
night  of  darkness  and  despair  over  the  moral  world,  taking  from 
faith  its  foundation,  from  hope  its  comfort,  from  charity  its 
motive,  from  fear  its  sanction,  and  from  righteousness  its 
reward.  And  is  this  a  result  to  be  desired,  my  friends  ]  Are 
the  checks  to  human  depravity  so  plenty  and  so  efficient,  that 
the  pride  and  vanity  of  learning  may  safely  and  innocently  be 
allowed  to  sport  itself  with  interests  which  have  no  other  mea- 
sure than  eternity  ?  Yet  such  is  the  inevitable  result  if  the 
words  of  my  text  rest  upon  any  lower  authority  for  their  claim 
to  your  attention  than  that  of  heaven's  King  and  this  world's 


THE  ONLY  CONDITION  OF  SALVATION.  267 

JucVe.  And  I  were  a  betrayer  of  Christ,  accountable  as  I 
know  that  I  am,  and  speaking  to  those  who  must  meet  me 
before  his  judgment  seat,  if  I  proposed  them  to  you  with  less 
than  their  weight,  as  the  words  of  Him  who  cannot  ^'^-^^^th 
less  than  their  authority,  as  the  unchangeable  word  of  the  Most 
High  God.  As  such,  therefore,  1  shall  proceed,  in  the  tear  ot 
God,  to  explain  and  enforce  them. 

For  if  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He  ye  shall  die  in  yovr  sins. 
The 'structure  of  the  sentence  requires  us  to  consider  the 
words  in  the  same  light  as  those  to  whom  they  were  spoken. 

Prophecy  and  expectation,  grounded  on  the  fulfilment  of  a 
remote  promise  made  by  the  Almighty  to  a  fallen  world  of 
which  the  Jewish  nation  were  the  depositaries,  and  with  which 
the  whole  frame  and  polity  of  their  state  was  inseparably  mter- 
woven,  led  that  people  to  look  forward  to  the  advent  of  their 
promised  deliverer  with  the  most  intense  interest.     That  bless- 
in-s  which  language  laboured  to  describe  were  to  accompany 
his  appearance  they  were  fully  assured,  but  of  the  particular 
nature  and  kind  they  were,  with  a  few  exceptions,  altogether 
ignorant.     Vainly  puffed  up  by  a  fleshly  mind,  corrupt  in  their 
morals  in  proportion  to  their  departure  from  the  spirit  of  their 
religion,  ambitious  of  worldly  power  and  grandeur,  and  pressed 
under  the  yoke  of  foreign  and  Heathen  despotism,  they  over- 
looked the  spiritual  application  of  their  inspired  writings,  and 
from  the  kingly  titles  and  supreme  dominion  ascribed  therem  to 
their  Messiah,  expected  and  desired  only  a  temporal  deliverance, 
and  the  re-establishment  of  their  ancient  kingdom  in  unchange- 
able  supremacy  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  this  world.     Hence, 
when  Jesus  of  Nazareth  appeared  in  the  lowly  condition  ot  a 
servant,  and  opened  up  to  them  the  nature  of  that  kingdom  which 
he  came  to  set  up-when  he  explained  the  spiritual  extent  ot 
that  holy  law  which  God  had  given  them,  and  denouncmg  their 
sins,  called  upon  them  to  repent  and  believe  in  him  for  pardon, 
grace,  and  everlasting  life-when  he  showed  the  kind  of  deliver- 
ance he  had  undertaken  to  achieve  for  them,  and  mstead  of 
that  worldly  power  and  grandeur  which  they  fondly  anticipated, 
required  them    to   renounce   their  proud  and  vain  glorious 
expectations,  and  to  follow  him  in  humility,  self-denial,  and 


268  FAITH    IN    CHRIST 

holiness,  to  a  kingdom  not  of  this  woilci,  they  rejected  him 
almost  to  a  man,  and  with  one  voice  exclaimed.  We  will  not 
have  this  man  to  reign  over  us.  Yea,  when  his  predicted  fore- 
runner, whom  they  all  acknowledged  to  be  a  prophet,  publicly 
proclaimed  him  as  the  promised  Messiah,  as  the  Son  of  God, 
and  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away  the  sh\  of  the  world — 
when  prophecies  fulfilled  to  the  very  letter,  and  miracles  wrought 
before  their  eyes,  confounded  every  reasonable  ground  of  oppo- 
sition and  refusal,  their  perverseness  was  sharpened  into  malice, 
and  they  conspired  to  take  away  liis  life.  With  this  view  they 
watched  all  his  motions,  laid  snares  for  him  in  his  speech,  and 
when  the  innocence  and  wisdom  of  his  life  defeated  all  their 
attempts,  at  last  bribed  one  of  his  intimate  friends  to  betray  him 
into  their  hands. 

In  one  of  those  attempts  to  ensnare  him,  the  conversation  of 
which  my  text  forms  a  part  occurred,  in  which,  having  baffled 
a  deep  laid  scheme  to  involve  him  with  the  civil  or  ecclesiastical 
rulers  of  the  country,  he  proceeded  to  set  before  them  the 
dreadful  consequences  of  continuing  to  reject  his  person  and 
doctrine,  to  warn  them  that  he  was  not  to  remain  much  longer 
with  them,  and  that  if  this  the  day  of  their  visitation  was  neglect- 
ed, their  ruin  was  irrevocably  decreed.  lam  the  light  of  the  world, 
I  am  from  above,  I  am  not  of  this  world.  Ye  are  from  beneath. 
If  ye  were  Abraham'' s  children  ye  would  do  the  loorks  of  Abraham. 
Ye  do  the  ivoi'ks  of  your  father  the  devil,  and  because  I  tell  you 
the  truth  ye  believe  me  not.  I  go  my  way,  and  whither  I  go  ye 
cannot  come.  Ye  shall  seek  me,  but  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins.  For 
if  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins. 

The  words  of  my  text,  therefore,  are  an  epitome  of  the  gospel, 
an  abbreviated  manner  of  setting  forth  that  method  of  salvation 
which  the  mercy  of  God  has  provided  for  sinners,  through 
Jesus  Christ.  And  while  they  briefly  but  forcibly  declare 
both  the  danger  and  the  remedy,  and  enforce  the  grand  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  salvation  by  grace  through  faith,  they  bind  down 
the  attention  of  every  serious  mind  to  the  personal  interest  of 
the  sinner  in  the  atonement  of  the  cross.  Ye  are  sinners,  says 
our  Lord  to  the  Jews  ;  and  in  such  sort  sinners,  that  notwith- 
standing your  being  God's  chosen  people — notwithstanding  your 


THE    ONLY    CONDITION    OF  SALVATION.  269 

dependence  upon  the  promises  made  to  your  father  Abraham — 
notwithstanding  your  confidence  in  the  sacrifices  and  expiations 
of  the  law  given  you  by  jNIoses — yet  as  Abraham  saw  my  day, 
and  though  afar  off,  rejoiced  and  was  glad,  and  by  faith  in  the 
promise  only  was  justified  and  accepted,  and  as  Moses  himself, 
and  your  law  with  all  its  provisions,  were  but  types  of  me,  and 
pointed  to  me,  so  must  you  also,  by  personally  believing  in  or 
rejecting  me,  be  partakers  of  the  promise,  or  be  cut  off  from 
the  hope  of  Israel.  JMoses  gave  you  not  that  bread  from  heaven, 
hut  my  Father  giveth  you  the  true  bread  from  heaven.  I  am  that 
bread  of  life.  I  am  the  living  bread  ichich  came  doicn  from  heaven, 
if  any  man  eat  of  this  bread  he  shall  live  for  ever.  Verily,  verily 
1  say  unto  you,  he  that  believeth  on  me  hath  everlasting  life. 

In  like  manner  it  is  said  to  each  one  of  us — Ye  are  sinners, 
and  no  otherwise  than  by  faith  in  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God, 
can  you  escape  either  from  your  sins  or  the  awful  penalty 
denounced  against  them  by  the  unchangeable  law  of  God. 

But  as  with  the  Jews  so  with  us,  my  hearers.  Though  he 
tells  us  the  truth,  and  because  it  is  the  truth,  and  we  feel  assured 
that  it  is  the  truth  by  a  testimony  not  to  be  mistaken,  yet  too 
often  we  believe  him  not.  That  is,  we  do  not  act  upon  the 
conviction  thence  arising,  as  we  usually  do  on  far  inferior 
interests,  from  convictions  which  have  less  certainty. 

For  instance  :  were  I  to  ask  this  congregation,  man  by  man 
and  woman  by  woman,  whether  they  did  not  know  and  feel,  in 
other  words,  were  convinced,  that  they  were  sinners,  in  the 
Scripture  sense  of  the  word,  and  as  such  could  have  no  confidence 
in  themselves  to  meet  with  safety  the  righteous  judgment  of 
God,  would  there  be  any  found  who  could  honestly  say  that 
they  even  doubted  about  it  1  Yet  many  I  fear  would  have  to  say, 
in  the  same  honesty,  that  this  sense  of  sin  had  never  been  so 
attended  to  and  acted  upon  as  to  drive  them  to  Jesus  Christ, 
the  only  physician  of  souls.  But  were  I  to  ask  the  same  persons, 
whether,  when  labouring  under  a  bodily  disease  they  thus  act, 
or  in  managing  a  temporal  interest  they  thus  hesitate,  and  put 
off  what  is  needful,  would  they  not  be  obliged  to  answer  differ- 
ently 1  Yet  surely  the  danger  from  a  bodily  disease,  or  the  loss 
or  gain  of  a  temporal  interest  is  neither  so  certain  or  so  great 


270  FAITH    IN    CHRIST 

as  in  the  case  of  the  soul.  Nor  can  there  reasonably  be  sup- 
posed the  sarne'ground  of  reliance  on  the  judgment  of  a  friend, 
the  skill  of  a  physician,  or  on  the  efficacy  of  the  counsel  and 
means  which  they  advise,  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 

By  this  analogy,  then,  let  us  be  instructed  my  friends.     For 
as  surely  as  a  curable  distemper  may  prove  mortal  to  the  body 
when  the  skill  of  the  physician  and  the  means  he  prescribes 
are  neglected,  so  will  the  disease  of  sin  prove  fatal  to  the  soul 
unless  arrested  in  its  progress  by  the  grace  of  the  gospel,  and 
deprived  of  its  virulence  by  the  blood  of  Christ. 
If  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He,  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins- 
This  mode  of  expressing  himself,  made  use  of  by  our  Lord, 
called  the  Jews  at  once  to  consider  and  compare  the  circum- 
stances predicted  of  their  Messiah  with  what  was  passing  before 
their   eyes.      And,  had  prejudice   and    prepossession   allowed 
them  to  search  those  Scriptures  to  which  he  so  often  referred 
them,  they  must  have  seen  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy  stand  out 
in  such  bold  relief  as  to  draw  from  their  whole   nation   the 
acknowledgment  of  Nathaniel — Rabbi  thou  art  the  Son  of  God, 
thou  art  the  King  of  Israel. 

That  this  was  a  mode  of  speaking  familiar  to  the  Jews,  when 
their  expected  Messiah  was  the  subject,  we  learn  from  different 
instances  of  its  use  in  the  Scriptures.  Thus,  when  Philip, 
obeying  the  Saviour's  call,  communicated  the  circumstance  to 
Nathaniel,  JVe  have  found  him,  says  he,  of  whom  JMoses  in  the 
laiv  and  the  prophets  did  write,  Jesus  of  JSTazareth  the  son  of 
Joseph.  And  when  John  the  Baptist,  desirous  to  satisfy  his 
disciples  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  sent  them  to  him,  his 
message  was  expressed  in  the  same  peculiar  mode  of  speaking — 
i^rt  thou  He  that  should  come,  or  do  ive  look  for  another  ?  And 
that  it  was  purposely  made  use  of  by  our  Lord  on  this  occasion 
we  have  good  reason  to  infer  from  his  answer  to  John's  message — 
Go  and  show  John  again  those  things  ivhich  ye  do  hear  and  see  ; 
the  blind  receive  their  sight,  and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are 
cleansed  and  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised  up  and  the  poor 
have  the  gospel  preached  unto  them.  Which  answer,  as  it  is  a 
literal  application  of  the  prophecies  to  the  times  and  marks 
of  the  Messiah,  so  was  it  intended  to  give  to  them  and  to 


THE    ONLY    CONDITION    OP    SALVATION.  371 

all  Other  inquirers,  that  substantial  and  convincing  evidence 
which  springs  from  the  coincidence  of  a  deep  and  wonderful 
counsel,  a  declared  purpose,  and  an  exact  fulfilnaent ;  compared 
with  which  no  other  proof  possesses  so  complete  a  power  over  the 
understanding,  neither  is  any  other  so  marked  with  the  impress 
of  heaven,  or  so  well  calculated  to  produce  conviction  in  every 
fair  and  unprejudiced  mind.  Hence  it  was  that  our  Lord 
made  use  of  it  to  confirm  to  his  immediate  disciples  the  other 
proofs  they  had  of  his  person  and  character — JVoio  /  tell  you 
before  it  come,  that  when  it  is  come  to  pass  ye  may  believe  that  lam 
He.  And  hence  the  effect  which  they  have  recorded  that  it 
produced  upon  their  failh — When,  therefore,  he  was  risen  from 
the  dead,  his  disciples  remembered  that  he  had  said  this  unto  them, 
and  they  believed  the  Scripture,  and  the  icord  which  Jesus  had 
said.  In  which,  let  it  be  observed  and  remembered,  that  it  was 
not  simply  our  Lord's  ability  to  foretel  future  events  which 
confirmed  his  disciples,  but  the  plain  and  evident  connexion  and 
agreement  of  long  recorded  prophecies  with  the  person  and 
character  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  time  of  his  appearing,  and  the 
events  of  his  life  and  death.  The  former  would  have  entitled 
him  to  the  prophetic  character  only,  in  which  he  had  many 
predecessors,  but  the  latter  pointed  him  out  as  the  object  and 
end  of  all  prophetic  inspiration,  the  promised  seed  of  the 
woman,  the  angel  of  the  covenant,  the  Shiloh  unto  whom  the 
gathering  of  the  people  should  be,  the  great  prophet  whom 
Moses  told  the  Israelites  God  would  raise  up  unto  them  of  their 
brethren,  the  Lord  God  of  the  holy  prophets,  the  expected 
Messiah  of  the  Jews,  the  appointed  and  only  Saviour  of  sinners, 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh  to  destroy  the  works  of  the  devil,  God 
over  all  blessed  for  ever.  And,  therefore,  they  not  only  believed 
his  word,  but  they  believed  in  him  as  he  that  should  come,  their 
Lord  and  their  God. 

If  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins. 

The  purchase  of  mercy  for  a  ruined  world,  and  the  proper 
propitiation  for  the  sin  which  produced  and  continued  that  ruin, 
can  be  declared  only  by  Him  who  is  the  fountain  of  mercy,  and 
to  whom  the  atonement  was  to  be  made  :  man  has  nothing  to 
do  with  it  but  to  accept  or  refuse  it ;  and  we  may  assume,  with- 


272  FAITH    IN    CHRIST 

out  danger  of  contradiction,  that  had  heaven  been  silent  on  its 
high  and  holy  purposes  towards  fallen  man,  it  never  would  have 
entered  into  his  heart  to  conceive  either  this  or  any  other  mode 
of  reconciliation  and  restoration.  It  is  so  far  above  and  beyond 
the  conception  and  reach  of  the  natural  many  yea,  it  is  such 
foolishness  to  him  even  when  made  known,  that  we  safely  thus 
conclude.  Yet  in  its  great  outline  it  is  written  in  the  heart  of 
every  living,  thinking  being,  and  we  can  trace  its  presence 
through  the  long  hidden,  and  unconnected  islands  of  the  great 
deep,  through  the  leading  features  of  Heathen  superstition, 
through  the  sacrifices  and  expiations  of  the  Jews,  to  the  fulfil- 
ment of  what  these  all  shadowed  out  in  the  offering  up  of  the 
body  of  Christ  once  for  all. 

It  is  on  this  universal  testimony,  that  without  shedding  of  blood 
there  is  no  remission,  confirmed  by  the  express  declaration  of 
God's  revealed  will,  that  we  are  called  on  and  commanded  to 
believe  in  Christ.    As  he  was  the  true  sin-offering  of  which  all 
other  sacrifices.  Patriarchal,  Pagan,  or  Jewish,  were  but  types  ; 
as  his  blood  alone  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  by  washing 
out  the  guilt  of  rebellion  against  God  ;  so  hath  it  pleased  the 
Almighty  Father  to  appoint  that  no  otherwise  than  by  faith  in 
his  only  begotten  Son  can  sinful  man  look  up  to  him  with  hope ; 
that  no  otherwise  than  through  faith  in  the  merits  of  his  blood 
shed  for  us  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  broken  law  can  either 
original  or  actual  guilt  be  atoned  for,  and  the  sinner  stand  justi- 
fied or  accounted  righteous  in  the  sight  of  a  holy  God.     And 
that  no  otherwise  than  by  the   power  and  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus   Christ,  in  whom  it  pleased  the  Father  that  all  fulness 
should  dwell,  can  sinful  creatures  be  renewed  in  the  spirit  of 
their  minds  to  that  holiness  without  which  no  man  shall  see  the 
Lord.     Hence  it  is  that  faith  in  Christ' is  so  often  put  for  the 
whole  of  religion,  that  we  are  told  that  without  faith  it  is  impos- 
sible to   please   God,    that  he  that  believeth  not    is  condemned 
already.  For,  until  we  believe  the  message  of  mercy  revealed  by 
and  through  Jesus  Christ  in  the  gospel,  the  wit  of  man  cannot 
invent  a  ground  of  hope  or  confidence   towards  God,  for  that 
creature  who  is  opposed  to  him  in  all  his  thoughts  and  in  all 
his  ways.     But  in  believing  all  things  are  made  possible,  God 


THE    ONLY    CONDITION  OF    SALVATION.  273 

can  be  just  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  believeth  in  Jesus  ;  the 
world,  sin,  death,  and  hell  can  be  overcome  by  faith  in  the  only 
begotten  Son  of  God,  and  heaven  with  all  its  glories  realized 
to  him  who  walks  by  faith  and  not  by  sight ;  while  to  the 
unbeliever  there  is  nothing  possible,  because  there  is  no  motive, 
neither  is  there  any  help  promised  or  given.  He  may,  indeed, 
and  most  generally  he  does,  to  tranquilize  the  indwelling  fears 
of  his  misgiving  conscience,  patch  up  some  motley  system  of 
belief  for  himself,  in  which  he  fashions  a  God  after  his  own 
liking,  and  draws  largely  on  revelation  for  the  mercy  it  holds  out, 
without  once  thinking,  that  the  Scripture  cannot  be  broken — 
that  revelation  is  a  whole,  and  must  be  taken  altogether  or  not 
at  all ;  that  we  can  know  nothing  of  God  as  a  God  of  mercy 
but  by  the  revelation  of  Christ  and  his  cross ;  and  that  taking 
a  part  of  what  is  revealed,  will  only  condemn  him,  by  proving 
that  he  had  the  whole,  and  thence  makes  God  a  liar,  by 
discrediting  the  testimony  he  hath  therein  given  to  his  only 
begotten  Son. 

If  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins. 
This  is  the  issue  which  the  gospel  is  furnished  to  make  up 
with  us  all,  my  friends.     If  we  are  not  sinners  we  need  neither 
its  mercy,  its  atonement,  or  its  grace,  and  the  Bible  is  a  libel  on 
human  nature  ;  but  if  we  are  sinners  in  the  true  meaning  of  the 
word,  that  is,  aliens  from  God  by  virtue  of  a  most  just  sentence 
already  pronounced,  enemies  to  his  purity  and  holiness  in  our 
desires  and  our  actions,  without  help  or  means  in  ourselves  to 
renew  our  nature  and  regain  his  favour,  mercy  on  me  !  by  what 
name  shall  they  be  called  who  venture  upon  eternity  in  this  con- 
dition with  the  gospel  sounding  in  their  ears.  On  such  an  issue,  of 
whom  should  we  take  counsel,  my  hearers.     The  sure  word  of 
God,  and  its  counterpart  in  our  own  hearts,  or  the  vain  inven- 
tions and  shallow  reasonings  of  men  like  ourselves  1     Have  we 
not  within  us,  yea,  even  those  who  dispute  against  it,  have  we 
not  the  witness  that  we  cannot  answer  even  one  of  a  thousand 
of  the  fair  and  just  claims  of  Him  who  made  and  redeemed  us 
upon  the  love  and  obedience  of  his  creatures ;    have  we  not 
without  us  the  speaking  witness  of  our  ruin,  in  the  frame  of  both 
the  natural  and  moral  world,  disordered,  disjointed,  and  out  of 
Vol.  n.—So 


274  FAITH    IN    CHRIST 

course  ;  storms  and  tempests,  earthquakes  and  volcanoes,  wars 
and  pestilence,  poverty  and  nakedness,  cold  and  hunger,  mar- 
ling the  beauty  and  breaking  in  upon  the  arrangement  of  the 
natural  world,  and  darkness  and  ignorance,  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing, disease  and  death,  lording  it  over  the  image  of  God,  and 
over  the  unconscious  creatures  he  hath  made  1  And  did  he 
make  them  to  this  end,  brethren  1  Is  either  natural  or  moral 
evil  the  creature  of  a  perfectly  pure,  wise,  and  omnipotent 
Being?  No,  my  friends,  God  forbid  you  should  think  it; 
what  came  from  his  creating  hands  came  forth  very  good.  But 
sin  entered  and  the  curse  followed,  which  for  our  sakes  extended 
even  to  things  which  cannot  sin  ;  Cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy 
sake. — Sad  proof  of  the  hatred  and  abhorrence  with  which 
God  regards  sin,  and  speaking  argument  to  us  to  escape  from  its 
snare. 

O  my  dear  hearers,  let  us  listen  to  the  faithful  counsel  of  our 
heavenly  Father,  confirmed  as  it  is  by  all  that  we  see  around  us, 
and  by  all  that  we  feel  within  us — above  all,  let  us  look  to  the 
convincing  demonstration  of  his  hatred  of  sin  and  love  to  poor 
•inners,  manifested  in  laying  upon  his  beloved  Son  the  iniquity  of 
lis  all,  and  exacting  from  him  the  penalty  which  all  creation 
could  not  pay.  Look  to  that  compassionate  Saviour  who  gave 
himself  for  us,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to 
God,  who  took  upon  him  our  nature,  that  he  might  teach  us, 
die  for  us,  and  save  us,  and  rose  again  from  the  dead  that  we 
might  have  a  hope  beyond  the  grave. 

Hear  him,  this  day,  calling  upon  you — Come  unto  me  all  ye 
ends  of  the  earth  and  be  saved.  Hear  him  reproaching  you — you 
tvill  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have  life ;  and  hear  all  his 
invitations  and  reproofs  echoed  back  upon  your  souls  in  the 
solemn  warning — If  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He  ye  shall  die  in 
your  sins. 

But  what  is  it  to  die  in  our  sins  ?  It  is  to  enter  upon  an 
eternal  existence  with  the  curse  of  God  upon  our  souls,  to  pass 
the  intermediate  state  in  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment, 
and  fiery  indignation  which  shall  consume  the  adversary.  It  is  to 
rise  to  the  judgment  of  the  great  day,  with  the  claims  of  the  law 
in  full   force  against  us  for  every  violation  of  its  holy  and 


THE    ONLY    CONDITION    OF    SALVATION.  275 

unchangeable  precepts,  without  a  shield  from  its  justice,  a  refuge 
from  its  vengeance,  or  a  plea  for  mercy  ;  to  appear  before  the 
judgment  seat  of  Christ  with  warnings  slighted,  opportunities 
neglected,  mercies  abused,  and  love,  bleeding  love,  despised.  It 
is  to  be  banished  for  ever  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  glory  of  his  power,  to  dwell  with  unceasing  regret,  unmixed 
despair,  and  everlasting  burnings. 

O,  my  poor  fellow  sinners,  be  persuaded  to  think  of  these 
things  now,  as  you  will  surely  think  of  them  then.  For,  if  but 
to  hear  of  them  from  the  lips  of  a  minister  of  Christ,  and  a  poor 
dying  creature  like  yourselves,  makes  your  heart  to  sink  within 
you,  what  will  it  be  when  you  hear  them  from  the  lips  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  himself,  when  the  thunder  of  heaven  proclaims 
the  irreversible  sentence.  Depart  ye  cursed  into  everlasting  Jire, 
prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels. 

Oh  !  the  horror  of  that  moment,  when  unbelief  stands  aghast 
at  the  sound  of  the  last  trumpet — when  the  earth,  heaving  into 
life,  gives  up  its  buried  millions  to  judgment — when  a  burning 
world  and  a  blazing  heaven  proclaim  the  pollution  of  sin  by 
passing  through  the  purification  of  fire  for  having  witnessed  it — 
when  the  gospel  sinner  sees  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead  appear 
in  his  glory,  with  the  powers  of  heaven  in  his  train  and  the 
marks  of  the  cross  in  his  person — when  hope  dies  for  ever  and 
the  second  death  seizes  upon  those  who,  in  their  day  of  grace, 
might  have  come,  but  they  would  not.  And  shall  we  risk  it, 
my  friends,  against  truth,  against  reason,  against  conscience, 
against  interest,  against  demonstration — shall  we  risk  it  upon  the 
weak  and  beggarly  elements  of  a  reason  that  would  be  wiser 
than  God — upon  the  authority  of  men  like  ourselves  who  can- 
not give  to  God  a  ransom  for  their  own  souls  nor  redeem  their 
brother  from  the  grave  ?  God  forbid  !  To  whom,  then,  can  we 
go  but  to  Him  who  has  the  words  of  eternal  life,  who  calls  upon 
you  to  make  your  peace  with  God  by  hearty  repentance  and 
true  faith,  and  this  day  sets  before  you  the  unchangeable  condi- 
tion of  gospel  hope  and  gospel  mercy  in  the  words  of  my  text — 
For  if  ye  believe  not  that  I  am  He  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins. 


SERMON  XXIV. 

LIFE  AND  IMMORTALITY  BROUGHT  TO  LIGHT  BY  THE  GOSPEL. 

2  Timothy  i.  10. 
"  Who  hath  abolished  death,  and  brought  Ufe  and  immortality  to  light  by  the  gospel." 

The  particular  exhortations  to  Timothy  to  be  earnest,  stead- 
fast, and  constant  in  the  profession  and  practice  of  religion,  and 
in  the  performance  of  his  duty  as  a  minister  of  Christ  and 
ruler  in  the  Church,  are  grounded  on  the  facts  declared  in  my 
text ;  and  as  those  facts  have  a  proportional  bearing  upon  every 
man  who  hears  them  proclaimed,  their  app^.ication  is  universal. 
As  death  and  judgment  await  as  well  private  Christians  as  pub- 
lic teachers  of  religion,  as  well  those  who  make  no  profession  of 
and  have  no  concern  with  religion  as  those  who  do  and  are 
openly  engaged  on  the  Lord's  side,  all,  without  exception,  are 
concerned  to  consider  and  lay  to  heart  the  infinite  consequences 
which  follow  from  the  discoveries  made  to  us  of  another  state 
of  being. 

Mankind,  indeed,  are  universally  under  the  impression  that  there 
is  a  life  after  this  present  one,  and  they  are  also  aware  in  some 
good  degree,  that  its  chief  purpose  will  be  to  reward  the  good 
and  punish  the  wicked,  but  it  is  only  by  the  resurrection  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead,  which  we  this  day  celebrate, 
that  the  full  and  explicit  knowledge  of  the  nature  and  extent  of 
that  life  and  of  the  manner  in  which  it  will  affect  us,  is  confirmed 
to  our  faith.  Hence  the  doctrine  of  a  future  state  is  not  only 
the  comprehensive  and  conclusive  argumen  twhich  the  apostle 
makes  use  of  to  enforce  upon  Timothy  the  private  and  public 
observance  of  his  own  particular  duties,  but  that,  also,  which 
applies  to  every  other  individual  in  the  world,  according  to  the 
measure  which  it  has  pleased  God  to  deal  out  to  him.  In  this 
respect  God  hath  no  where  left  himself  without  witness  ;  for  the 
conclusions  reason  is  able  to  come  to  from  the  impression  of  a 


LIFE    BROUGHT    TO    LIGHT    IN    THE    GOSPEL.  277 

future  state,  are  all  in  favour  of  that  fear  and  reverence  of 
Almighty  God  v/hich  leads  to  obedience  of  his  holy  law,  whether 
that  be  the  law  written  on  the  heart,  or  the  law  of  love  and  life 
proclaimed  in  the  gospel. 

To  consider  seriously,  then,  the  doctrine  declared  in  my  text, 
is  to  open  the  door  for  the  claims  of  religion  to  engage  our  atten- 
tion. For  religion  is  just  what  God,  in  his  wisdom,  has  been 
pleased  to  appoint,  to  prepare  us  for  a  happy  eternity — is  just 
what  is  requisite  to  assimilate  us  otherwise  sinful  creatures  to 
his  pure  and  holy  nature,  that  we  may  be  capable  of  enjoying 
the  glory  and  blessedness  of  his  presence,  and,  in  a  state  of  end- 
less being,  reap  those  rich  rewards  which  his  loving  mercy 
hath  prepared  and  promised  to  all  who  believe  and  obey  him. 
While  to  banish  from  our  minds  this  awakening  subject,  to  occu- 
py our  thoughts  with  present  and  sensible  things,  is  to  exclude 
all  entrance  to  the  fear  of  God  in  our  hearts,  all  reverence  for 
him  in  our  lives.  For,  to  the  man  who  never  realizes  another 
life,  religion,  or  what  is  the  same  thing,  the  love  and  service  of 
God  can  present  no  obligations.  In  fact  there  might  as  well  be 
no  God. 

When  this  universal  impression  of  a  future  being  is  confirmed 
by  express  revelation,  when  the  otherwise  dark  and  dubious  con- 
jectures of  our  anxious  minds  are  put  to  rest,  and  cleared  up 
by  the  explicit  confirmation  of  the  gospel,  and  when,  what  all 
must  wish  for,  but  none  could  attain  unto,  has,  by  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  Christ  become  the  birthright  and  inheritance, 
as  it  were,  of  Christian  lands,  it  must  be  profitable  both  to 
those  who  receive  and  those  who  reject  the  light  to  examine  and 
consider  what  Christianity  teaches  concerning  a  life  to  come, 
and  then  apply  the  instruction  it  shall  give  us — which  life  to 
come  is  now  made  manifest  by  the  appearing  of  our  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  icho  hath  abolished  death,  and  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light  by  the  gospel. 

I.  First,  if  there  is  another  life  alter  this,  our  present  life 
must  form  a  part  of  it,  or  be  in  some  way  connected  with  it. 

We  are,  accordingly,  informed  and  assured  in  the  Scriptures 
that  our.ipresent  life  is  a  state  of  reprieve  and  probation — that  it 
flows  from   Goa's   free  mercy,   by  the   mediation  of  Jesus 


278 


LIFE    AND    IMMORTALITY 


Christ — that  it  is  intended  to  ascertain  who  are  fit  objects  of 
God's  further  mercy  in  everlasting  salvation,  upon  the  gracious 
conditions  of  the  new  covenant,  or  fit  only  for  the  everlasting 
exercise  of  his  wrath,  as  irreclaimable,  impenitent,  unbelieving, 
and  disobedient.  The  purpose  of  the  present  life,  then,  is  to 
prepare  ourselves,  by  victory  over  sin  and  the  attainment  of 
holiness,  for  another  which  is  to  follow  it;  and  the  duties 
which  religion  requires,  and  the  grace  or  assistance  afforded,  are 
in  order  to  enable  us  to  attain  this  end,  while  the  judgment 
we  have  to  meet,  is  to  ascertain  who  have  and  who  have  not 
made  this  wise  improvement  of  God's  sparing  mercy. 

Hence,  we  learn  that  every  part  of  our  present  behaviour 
will  be  strictly  and  impartially  inquired  into,  and  our  thoughts 
as  well  as  our  actions  laid  open  before  the  Searcher  of  hearts, 
who  will  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  deeds  ;  to  them  who 
by  patient  continuance  in  tvell-doing,  seek  for  glory,  and  honour, 
and  immortality,  eternal  life;  but  to  them  who  are  contentious, 
and  do  not  obey  the  truth,  but  obey  unrighteousness,  indignation,  and 
wrath,  tribulation  and  anguish,  upon  every  soul  of  man  that 
doeth  evil ;  but  glory,  honour,  and  peace,  to  every  man  that  icorketh 
good,  xoithout  respect  of  persons. 

This  is  the  great  and  fundamental  discovery  of  the  gospel  on 
the  condition  of  our  future  life — that  the  righteous  shall  be 
rewarded  and  the  wicked  punished  everlastingly,  is  the  express 
declaration  of  God's  word,  repeated  in  more  instances  than  I 
have  time  to  quote,  and  varied  under  every  mode  of  expression 
which  can  engage  attention,  excite  hope,  or  alarm  fear.  And 
this,  perhaps,  to  the  further  purpose  of  counteracting  the  fatal 
propensity  so  frequent  in  the  Christian  world,  of  a  careless, 
unfounded  trust  for  salvation  in  that  love  and  mercy  of  God 
which  shines  so  bright  in  the  gift  of  Jesus  Christ,  without  once 
reflecting  that  this  and  every  other  instance  of  God's  goodness, 
is  intended  to  lead  us  to  repentance,  to  faith,  to  holiness,  and 
unless  it  produces  this  effect,  will  only  the  more  deeply  con- 
demn us — without  once  considering  that  mercy,  hov  ever  large 
and  free,  if  unsought,  unfound,  here,  cannot  be  obtained  here- 
after, and  that  icithout  holiness  no  man  shall  see  th<^  Lord. 
We  may  certainly  collect,  then,  from  the  Fcripture  account 


BROUGHT    TO    LIGHT    BY    THE    GOSPEL.  279 

of  our  future  life,  that  it  will  be  a  state  in  which  men  will  reap 
the  fruit  of  their  doings  in  the  present  life — in  which  the  reward 
of  their  hands  shall  he  given  them — in  which  he  that  sowclh  to 
thejlesh  shall  ofthejlesh  reap  corruption,  but  he  that  soweth  to  the 
Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life  everlasting. 

II.  Secondly,  if  there  is  another  life  in  connexion  with  this, 
the  means  of  attaining  it  must  be  within  our  reach. 

To  keep  the  word  of  promise  to  the  ear,  and  break  it  to  the 
hope,  is  truly  the  character  of  the  father  of  lies,  not  of  the 
Father  of  mercies  and  God  of  all  comfort  and  consolation.  And  as 
God  in  his  mercy  hath  seen  fit  to  reprieve  sinners  from  eternal 
death,  and  to  put  them  once  more  on  trial  for  eternal  life,  he 
who  doeth  all  things  well  must  have  furnished  them  to  profit  by 
this  wonderful  display  of  his  wisdom  and  love ;  and  we  are 
bound  t9  believe,  whatever  specious  objections  may  be  brought 
against  the  doctrine,  that  every  human  being  under  the  sound 
of  the  gospel,  to  go  no  farther,  though  I  am  willing  to  include 
the  race  of  Adam,  is  provided,  by  the  undertaking  of  Jesus 
Christ,  to  escape  that  eternal  death  from  which  he  is  reprieved, 
to  overcome  that  sin  which  entailed  it  upon  him,  to  attain 
that  holiness  required  by  the  gospel,  and  as  its  reward,  that 
eternal  life  which  is  yet  the  free  gift  of  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.  With  this  view  of  the  subject  agrees  the 
whole  tenour  of  revelation.  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  to  himself.  For  God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to  con- 
demn the  world,  but  that  the  world  through  him  might  be  saved. 
God  made  him  who  knew  no  sin  to  he  sin  for  us,  that  we  might  he 
made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him.  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  helieveth  in  him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.  Accordingly  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  his  undertaking  for  us,  we  are  taught  to  believe  that 
he  tasted  death  for  every  man  ;  that  he  gave  himself  a  ransom 
for  all ;  that  the  atonement  of  his  death  is  as  extensive  as  human 
sin ;  that  he  is  the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world  ; 
that  because  he  humbled  himself  and  became  obedient  to  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross,  therefore  God  also  hath  highly 
exalted  him,  that  he  might  be  head  over  all  things  to  his  Church, 
in  which  he  rules  as  a  Son  in  his  own  house ;  that  when  he 


280 


LIFE    AND    IMMORTALITY 


ascended  up  on  high,  he  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts 
unto  men,  even  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  abide  continually  with  his 
Church,  to  convince,  convert,  and  save  ;  that,  having  overcome 
death  and  him  that  had  the  power  of  it,  and  having  all  things 
committed  unto  him  of  the  Father,  he  proclaims  to  a  lost  world, 
Come  unto  me  all  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  be  saved.  Him  that 
Cometh  unto  me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.  He  that  helieveth  on 
me,  as  the  Scripture  hath  said,  out  of  his  belly  shall  floic  rivers  of 
living  water.  He  that  belicveth  on  me  hath  eternal  life,  and  I  icill 
raise  him  up  at  the  last  day. 

Of  the  Holy  Spirit  we  are  taught  to  believe,  that  by  his 
operations  upon  our  hearts,  we  are  enlightened  and  quickened 
from  a  state  of  spiritual  death  to  one  of  life  and  knowledge ;  that 
by  his  convincing  power  we  are  brought  to  a  right  sense  of  the 
heinous  nature  of  sin,  and  enabled  to  resolve  against  it  ;•  that  by 
his  sanctifying  grace  we  are  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  our  minds 
to  love  God  and  to  serve  him  in  holiness,  to  believe  his  word,  to 
trust  his  promise,  and  to  embrace  the  offer  of  his  mercy  in  and 
through  Jesus  Christ  as  our  only  hope  of  eternal  life  ;  that  in 
the  great  work  of  our  salvation,  from  first  to  last,  it  is  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  that  God  works  in  us  to  will  and  to  do;  and  that 
as  it  is  by  him  only  that  we  are  prepared  for  glory,  so  by  him  are 
we  raised  from  the  dead  to  partake  of  it.  Such  is  the  won- 
derful provision  of  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  to  bring 
back  a  world  of  fallen,  sinful  creatures  to  himself,  and  by  the 
gospel  the  gracious  invitation  is  to  all,  the  means  are  offered  to 
all,  and  it  is  proclaimed  even  to  the  chief  of  sinners — ask  and  ye 
shall  receive,  seek  and  ye  shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened 
unto  you.  And  it  is  surely  a  much  more  reasonable,  as  well  as 
scriptural  method  of  accounting  for  the  disregard  manifested 
for  the  gospel,  to  ascribe  it  to  the  perverseness  of  human 
nature,  to  the  power  of  the  god  of  this  world  in  blinding  the 
minds  of  them  that  will  not  believe,  to  the  love  of  sin,  or  to  any 
cause  rather  than  to  some  secret  reserve  on  the  part  of  Almighty 
God,  at  war  with  the  plain  declarations  of  his  public  message 
by  his  only  begotten  Son,  however  right  and  just  such  a  proceed- 
in  may  be  shown  in  the  abstract  to  be,  and  most  consistent,  in 
the  view  of  man's  wisdom,  with  the  claims  of  his  unlimited  sove- 


BROUGHT    TO    LIGHT    BY    THE    GOSPEL.  281 

rei^nty.     No,  my  fellow  sinners,  there  is  no  bar  to  the  mercy  of 
the  gospel  but  yourselves — the  Spirit  and  the  bride  say  come,  and 
let  him  that  heareth  say  come,  and  let  him  that  is  athirst  come,  and 
whosoever  will  let  him  come,  and  take  of  the  water  of  life  freely. 
If  you  are  not  athirst  for  the  water  of  life,  it  is  because  you  have 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  warning  of  God's  word,  to  the  testimony 
therein  given  to  your  lost  condition  ;   it  is  because  you  stifle  the 
convictions  of  your  conscience  awakened  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  drive  him  from  you  ;  it  is  because  you  love  the  pleasures  of 
sin  and  the  vanities  of  the  world  more  than  your  immortal  souls; 
it  is  because  you  will  not  believe  even  one  who  has  arisen  from 
the  dead,  to  reveal  to  you  the  unspeakable  interests  which  await 
you  beyond  the  grave,  and  are  dependant  for  their  everlasting 
happiness  or  misery  on  the  present  short,  fleeting,  and  uncertain 
state  of  being;  it  is  because  you  receive  not  the  truth  in  the 
love  of  it  that  you  might  be  saved  ;  it  is  because  you  Avill  not 
come  to  the  light,   lest  your  deeds  should  be  reproved,  and  not 
because  God  either  Avithholds  his  grace  or  restrains  you  from 
profiting  by  it.     No,   he  this  day  calls  upon  you  to  repent  and 
believe  the  gospel  ;  he  offers  you  the  sacrifice  of  his  only  Son  to 
atone  for  your  sins,  the   grace  of  his  Holy  Spirit  to  renew 
your  hearts,  the  comfort  of  his  precious  promises  to  strengthen 
your  weak  endeavours,   the  terrors  of  his  avenging  wrath  to 
alarm  your  guilty  fears,  a  judgment  revealed  to  determine  your 
everlasting  condition,  and  eternity  awaiting  you  to  crown  with  its 
endless  sanctions  the  part  you  shall  now  take.     O  that  his  light 
may  this  day  dawn  upon  your  souls  with  life  and  power,  that  you 
may  be  no  longer  faithless  but  believing,  and  enabled  to  choose 
that  good  part  which  shall  not  be  taken  from  you.    For  your 
eternal  interest  is  now  depending,  and  depending  upon  yourselves. 
The  terms  of  the  gospel,  life  and  death,  are  set  before  you. 
Your  condition  in  the  future  world  will  be  determined  by  your 
behaviour  in  this.     Eternal  life,  through  the  free  and  undeserved 
gift  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ,  can  no  otherwise  be  obtain- 
ed by  us  than  by  our  own  most  earnest  and  unremitting  endea- 
vours to  become  worthy  of  it,  by  that  personal  holiness  which 
is  the  crown  of  religion  ;  for  he  that  will  be  saved,  must  work 
Vol.  n.— 36 


282  LIFE    AND    IMMORTALITY 

out  his   own  salvation  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  as  God  has 
appointed,  now  while  it  is  called  to-day. 

In  what  is  thus  revealed  to  us  in  the  word  of  God,  of  a  future 
state,  and  of  the  means  provided  for  our  attainment  of  its  bless- 
edness, we  find  the  whole  adapted  to  our  weak  and  infirm 
condition,  my  hearers,  yet  so  adapted  as  to  give  no  encourage- 
ment to  sin,  no  excuse  to  indolence  and  carelessness,  no  hope 
to  the  fearful  and  unbelieving,  which  is  a  strong  and  convincing 
argument  that  it  is  not  of  man,  neither  by  man,  but  the  wisdom, 
and  the  power,  and  the  love  of  God,  manifested  to  advance  his 
glory  in  the  salvation  of  souls.  And  a  strong  and  instant  appeal 
it  is  to  all  who  hear  the  joyful  sound  of  the  gospel,  not  to  trifle 
with  their  day  of  grace,  not  to  put  away  from  them  the  warnings 
of  God's  word,  the  convictions  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  the  reason 
of  their  own  minds,  and  the  unspeakable  interests  of  eternity. 

In  what  pertains  to  the  judgment  through  which  we  must  all 
pass  to  the  rewards  or  punishments  of  a  future  state,  the  same 
merciful  regard  to  our  circumstances  is  manifested  by  our 
heavenly  Father.     For  we  are  informed, 

III.  Thirdly,  that  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  is 
ordained  of  God  to  be  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead,  so  that  the 
same  person  will  pass  sentence  on  our  sins  who  suffered  and 
died  for  them. 

In  the  consideration  of  what  belongs  to  this  point  of  doctrine, 
it  is  hardly  possible  to  determine  whether  there  is  in  it  more  of 
hope  for  the  penitent  believer  or  of  despair  to  the  impenitent 
sinner. 

Compassed  about  as  we  are  with  infirmity,  my  brethren,  and 
deeply  sensible  how  far  short  we  come  of  what  our  Lawgiver 
and  Judge  might  righteously  demand  at  our  hands,  it  is  a 
never  to  be  forgotten,  and  an  ever  to  be  praised  proof  of 
God's  clemency  and  goodness  towards  us,  that  one  who  was  in 
all  things  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin,  who  in  the 
very  truth  of  our  nature  experienced  its  weakness,  though  he 
rose  superior  to  its  frailty,  and  therefore  knows  how  to  have 
compassion  on  the  ignorant,  and  them  that  are  out  of  the  way, 
that  one  who  can  be  touched  with  a  feeling  of  our  infirmities, 
ehould,  in  the  last  resort,  be  constituted  our  Judge. 


BROUGHT    TO    LIGHT    BY    THE    GOSPEL.  283 

To  the  believer  it  is  full  of  hope  and  comfort  that  he  has  not 
to  meet  a  stranger  in  that  trying  day,  one  to  whom  he  is  wholly 
unknown,  but  one  to  whose  mediation  and  intercession  he  has 
often  had  recourse,   of  whose  fulness,  all  spiritual  grace  and 
advancement  has  been  wrought  in  him,  in  whose  righteousness 
alone  he  trusts,  in  whose  all-atoning  blood  he  has  washed  and 
purified  the.  polluted  robes  of  his  own  righteousness,  and  m 
whose   promise    he  confides  for   eternal  life ;    while   to    the 
impenitent  sinner,  all  that  Jesus  is  to  the  bdiever,  is  a  source 
of  the  blackest  despair.     That   unbelief  which  he   cherished 
against  the  convictions  of  his  conscience  is  now  put  to  flight,  by 
seeing  eye  to   eye,  and  face  to  face.     That  Jesus,  whom  he 
derided  as  an  impostor,  or  acknowledged  only  as  a  man,  now 
appears  before  him  with  life  and  death  eternal  dependant  on  his 
almighty  decision.      The  judgment  is  set  and  the  books  are 
opened,  and  the  great  white  throne  presents  to  an  admiring 
universe   that   same   Jesus  of   Nazareth   who  bore  his  cross 
through  Jerusalem  to  Calvary,  who  bore  our  sins  m  his  own 
body  on  the  tree,  who  tasted  death  for  a  lost  world,  and  rising 
triumphant  from  the  grave,  became  the  author  of  eternal  salva- 
tion to  all  that  obey  him,  exalted  as  Judge  of  quick  and  dead. 
All  this  the  impenitent  gospel  sinner  then  sees,  in  that  flood  of 
uncreated  light  which  surrounds  the  throne  of  the  Eternal.  All 
this  the  gospel  sinner  hears  in  the  thunderings,  and  lightnings,  and 
voices  which  proceed  from  the  throne  itself.     While  memory 
rolls  back  upon  his  awakened  conscience  invitations  slighted, 
warnings  neglected,  mercies  abused,  and  time  wasted— heaven 
defied,  hell  derided,  and  judgment  dared.     That  world  which 
he  took  for  his  portion  now  rolls  a  smoking  ruin  under  his  feet. 
The  golden  god  of  his  idolatry  is  reduced  to  a  cinder.     The 
pleasures  he  pursued  have  left  only  their  sting  behind  them. 
The  morality  in  which  he  trusted,  touched  by  the  sceptre  of 
eternal  truth,   evaporates   into   selfishness,   while  naked    and 
defenceless  he  trembles  before  his  righteous  Judge.     In  horror 
and  amazement,  a  plea  for  mercy  would  rush  to  his  lips  ;  but  the 
day  of  mercy  is  past— it  is  the  day  of  judgment !  his  own  mouth 
anticipates  the  sentence  of  the  Judge,  and  he  sinks  into  that 


284  LIFE    AND    IMMORTALITY 

bottomless  gulf,   where  the  loorm  never  dies,  and  the  fire  never 
shall  be  quenched. 

0  blessed  Lord,  thou  most  worthy  Judge  eternal,  look 
down  upon  us  in  thy  mercy,  and  give  to  the  truth  of  thy  holy 
and  unchangeable  word  its  life  and  power.  Fasten  an  arrow  of 
conviction  in  the  heart  of  some  poor  sinner  present ;  yea,  Lord, 
of  all  who  are  present,  that  they  may  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come,  and  escape  the  terrors  of  thy  great  and  dreadful  day, 
the  horrors  of  everlasting  despair,  and  the  death  that  never  dies. 

O  my  dear  brethren,  let  us  keep  ever  before  us  this  awful 
close  of  all  our  hopes  and  fears,  that  it  may  stir  us  up  so  to  pass 
through  things  temporal  that  we  finally  lose  not  the  things 
eternal.  That  holding  faith  and  a  good  conscience  we  may 
reap  a  full  reward.  In  that  awful  day,  what  will  the  world  and 
its  vanities  be  worth  1  What  advantage  will  the  pursuits  of  ambi- 
tion, profit,  and  pleasure  then  yield  us  ]  Where  will  be  the  gain 
of  riches  if  we  are  not  rich  towards  God,  rich  in  faith,  rich  in 
good  works  1  Bring  your  worldly  condition  to  this  blessed  light, 
my  brethren,  and  whatever  in  it  will  not  bear  this  test,  cease 
from  it,  and  put  it  away  from  you.  For  it  is  better  to  enter  into 
life  naked  of  every  worldly  accommodation,  than,  clothed  in 
purple  and  fine  linen,  to  awake  in  hell  being  in  torments. 

1  come,  in  the  last  place,  to  make  a  brief  application  of  the 
instruction  we  may  draw  from  the  text,  and  from  what  has  been 
said  upon  it. 

Have  we,  then,  my  friends,  realized  and  brought  near  to  us 
this  final  close  of  all  that  we  are  engaged  so  busily  and  earnestly 
about  ?  Have  we  ever  paused  upon  the  awakening  thought  that 
death  and  judgment  await  us,  and  that  we  are  advancing  towards 
them  as  fast  as  the  tide  of  time  can  roll  us  onward  to  the  fated 
moment,  when  the  heavens  being  on  fire  shall  be  dissolved,  the 
earth  also  and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be  burnt  up  1 
Or  have  we  permitted  it  to  pass  through  the  mind  as  a  specula- 
tion of  something  distant  and  future,  which  might  be  put  off  to 
a  more  convenient  season?  Alas!  how  many  thousands  who 
yet  cannot  plead  ignorance,  are  nevertheless  as  every  way  uncon- 
cerned about  this  event  as  if  they  liad  no  interest  whatever  in 
the  mighty  determination  then  to  be  made.     How  many  millions 


BROUGHT    TO    LIGHT    BY    THE    GOSPEL.  285 

in  gospel  lands  have  yet  to  awake  to  the  solemn  truth  contained 
in  my  text,  to  shake  off  the  thorns  and  briars  of  worldly  occu- 
pation, and  give  some  share  of  thought  and  attention  to  the 
interests  of  eternity.  And  even  in  this  little  assembly,  where 
not  a  week  passes  without  its  honest  warning,  what  a  small 
proportion  have  brought  the  truths  of  religion  to  bear  upon  the 
deep  anxieties  of  a  dying  bed,  upon  the  account  which  each  must 
give  of  himself  to  God.  Alas !  how  is  it  in  these  days,  as  it  was 
in  the  days  of  Noah  and  of  Lot.  One  goes  to  his  farm,  another 
to  his  merchandise,  and  a  third  to  his  profession  or  his  pleasure, 
regardless  of  the  certain  truth,  that  the  day  of  the  Lord  so  cometh 
as  a  thief  in  the  night,  and  of  the  only  preparation  which  can 
enable  a  fallen,   sinful  creature  to  meet  it  with  composure. 

But,  my  hearers,  if  these  things  are  so,  what  manner  of  per- 
sons ought  we  to  he  who  profess  to  believe  them,  and  whether 
we  believe  them  or  not,  must,  nevertheless,  meet  them,  with  this 
miserable  addition  to  our  guilt,  that  we  had  timely  warning  and 
effectual  means  to  escape  the  snare  1 

If  a  day  is  fixed  and  drawing  nearer  and  nearer,  when 
Christ  will  come  to  take  account  of  his  servants,  how 
earnestly  engaged  should  we  be,  that  xoe  may  be  found  of  him  in 
peace.  Is  it  the  part  of  prudence  to  be  careless  about  so  great 
an  event  1  or  can  any  sacrifice  be  too  great  to  secure  a  ivell 
done  from  our  heavenly  Master  1  Reason  says  no,  revelation 
says  no,  heaven  says  no,  hell  says  no.  Will  any  here  present, 
then,  say  yes  1  No,  not  one  will  speak  out ;  and  yet  in  one 
little  hour  how  many  will  declare  by  their  actions,  which  speak 
louder  than  words,  that  they  have  no  relish  for  heavenly  things 
— that  they  prefer  the  pleasures  of  sin,  the  gain  of  ungodhness, 
and  a  portion  in  this  life  with  the  awful  curse  which  follows 
them  in  the  life  to  come,  to  the  incorruptible  inheritance  of  a 
heavenly  kingdom — to  that  fulness  of  joy  which  beams  from  the 
presence  of  God — to  those  endless  pleasures  which  are  at  his 
right  hand  for  evermore. 

O  that  I  could  persuade  you  to  give  as  much  thought  to 
your  souls  as  you  do  to  your  sins  ;  to  bestow  as  much  labour 
on  your  eternal,  as  you  waste  upon  your  temporal  interests — as 
much  attention  to  be  adorned  with  righteousness  in  your  lives, 


286  LIFE    AND    IMMORTALITY 

as  with  finery  on  your  persons.  Then  there  might  be  some 
hope  ;  but,  alas  !  alas  !  while  the  present  life  swallows  up  the 
care  and  attention  due  to  another,  what  else  can  be  expected 
but  that  iniquity  should  abound,  the  love  of  many  wax  cold, 
and  the  leaden  slumber  of  infidelity  settle  into  that  deep  and 
death-like  sleep  from  which  the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the 
trump  of  God  alone  shall  wake  them, 

Jlwake,  then,  thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and 
Christ  shall  give  thee  light.  There  is  yet  one  little  precious 
hour  in  which  to  redeem  the  time  that  is  wasted — in  which,  by 
repentance  towards  God  and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
thy  ingratitude  may  be  forgotten,  thy  sins  blotted  out,  and  the 
renewal  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  prepare  thee  to  reap  the  rich 
reward  of  everlasting  hfe  and  blessedness  in  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  and  of  God. 

To  the  Christian,  in  like  manner,  the  doctrine  of  a  future 
state  is  full  of  warning  and  encouragement  at  the  same  time.  It 
warns  him  that  this  world  is  not  his  rest,  and  thereby  enables 
him  to  resist  and  to  overcome  the  temptation  of  its  prosperity.  It 
sets  before  him  a  kingdom  which  caimot  be  moved,  and  thereby 
engages  him  to  seek  the  best  things,  to  lay  up  his  treasure 
where  neither  disappointment,  or  loss,  or  decay  can  ever  come. 
In  the  hour  of  adversity,  the  contemplation  of  an  incorruptible 
inheritance  laid  up  in  heaven  for  him,  encourages  him  to  wait 
with  faith  and  patience,  and  to  endure  as  seeing  Him  who  is 
invisible  except  to  the  eye  of  faith.  And  even  in  the  hour  of 
dissolution,  the  assurance  of  a  joyful  resurrection  through  the 
merits  of  a  risen  Redeemer,  cheers  the  dark  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death  with  light  from  heaven,  and  transmits  him  through  the 
darkness  of  the  grave  to  the  uncreated  light  of  God's  everlast- 
ing presence.  His  faith  is  built  on  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
his  hope  is  founded  on  the  promise  of  his  Lord.  Because  I  live, 
ye  shall  live  also.  I  will  come  again  and  receive  you  to  myself. 
This  is  the  anchor  of  his  soul  to  the  Christian,  the  joyful  expect- 
ation of  which  supports  him  through  his  pilgrimage,  and 
strengthens  him  to  purify  and  prepare  himself  for  the  well  done 
of  his  Saviour  and  his  Judge.  It  is  the  resurrection  of  Christ, 
my  brethren,  which  gives  life  and  power  to  his  gospel.     We 


BROUGHT    TO    LIGHT    BY    THE    GOSPEL.  287 

may  admire  the  holiness  of  his  life — we  may  mourn  over  the 
tragedy  of  his  death,  it  is  his  resurrection  from  the  dead  which 
makes  the  gospel  a  joyful  sound.  Take  it  away,  or,  what  is  the 
same  thing  in  effect,  let  it  be  disregarded,  unapplied,  and  of  what 
worth  is  the  gospel  1  Take  it  away,  and  to  what  purpose  should 
we  celebrate  his  death  as  the  highest  solemnity  of  religion,  or 
expect  to  derive  comfort  or  increase  of  grace  from  a  Saviour  who 
himself  continued  the  victim  of  death,  and  imprisoned  in  the  grave  1 
I^utnow  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  and  become  the  first  fruits 
of  them  that  slept,  therefore,  we  draw  near  to  God  with  confi- 
dence through  him  who  is  thus  the  first  born  of  many  brethren. 
His  death  for  us  is  sanctified  as  a  means  of  grace  by  the  triumph 
of  his  resurrection.  The  promises  of  God  to  a  sinful  world  are 
sealed  to  every  believer  in  this  proof  that  the  great  sin  offering 
is  accepted,  and  assurance  given  to  all  men  that  they  shall  stand 
before  him  as  their  Judge, 

Let  us,  therefore,  my  brethren,  as  partakers  of  this  hope, 
keep  ever  before  us  the  gracious  purpose  of  his  life,  his  death, 
and  his  resurrection,  that,  as  he  came  to  redeem  us  from  all 
iniquity,  we  may  purify  our  hearts  even  as  he  is  pure ;  and 
drawing  near  to  this  commemoration  of  his  passion  and  death 
for  our  sins,  with  a  true  and  lively  faith,  we  may  realize  the 
power  of  his  resurrection,  through  the  renewal  of  our  spiritual 
strength,  and  pass  at  the  last  to  our  joyful  resurrection  through 
his  Spirit  dweUing  in  us,  who  hath  abolished  death,  and  brought 
life  and  immortality  to  light  by  the  gospel. 

To  whom,  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  all 
honour  and  glory,  world  without  end. 


SERMON  XXV. 


SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL. 


1  John  iv.  10. 

"Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  to  be 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins." 

The  mercies  of  God  to  his  creatures  present  the  most 
moving  appeal  which  can  be  made  to  their  hearts  ;  they  speak 
a  language  which  all  can  understand,  however  slow  of  heart  to 
practise  the  lesson  they  teach.  And  as  they  are  universal  in 
their  distribution,  and  are  over  all  his  works,  they  form  the 
ground- work  of  that  condemnation  or  acquittal,  that  reward  or 
punishment  which  his  righteous  judgment  shall  determine  upon 
them.  This  is  presented  to  us  in  many  shapes  in  the  Scriptures 
of  our  faith,  my  brethren,  and  many  most  affectionate  exhorta- 
tions, drawn  from  this  source,  are  set  forth  to  quicken  our 
languid  tempers,  and  stir  up  the  best  affections  of  our  souls  to 
love  and  honour,  to  serve  and  please  our  unwearied  Benefac- 
tor. God  is  love,  and  all  that  we  can  know  and  perceive,  all 
that  we  enjoy  or  suffer,  whatever  we  possess  in  time  or  can 
hope  for  in  eternity,  is  grounded  on  this  never  to  be  shaken 
foundation. 

His  sovereign  power,  indeed,  claims  of  right,  our  entire  duty 
and  obedience,  our  most  unreserved  submission  to  his  holy  will, 
and  the  most  unqualified  disposal  of  our  destiny  ;  nor  is  it  in 
man,  or  in  any  created  being  to  measure  arms  with  Jehovah. 
But  though  this  is  imprinted  on  our  hearts  and  set  forth  in  his 
word  as  the  unanswerable  argument  for  rational  creatures  to 
learn  the  will  of  God,  and  to  do  it,  yet  in  the  benignity  of  his 
pure  and  perfect  nature,  he  rather  applies  to  a  sense  of  benefits 
conferred,  of  compassion  entertained,  of  favour  and  mercy 
promised,  to  move  our  gratitude  and  win  our  willing  obedience. 

Of  this  I  might  cite  many  passages   and  proofs  from  the 


SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL.  289 

Scriptures,  for  it  is  but  to  open  the  Bible  to  find  them.  Yet 
have  we  a  larger  volume,  my  hearers,  in  which  to  read  this 
quickening  truth.  We  have  only  to  open  our  eyes,  and  lo, 
the  goodness  of  God  surrounds  us  on  every  side  !  We  have  but 
to  look  back  on  our  past  lives,  and  to  see  and  to  realize,  each 
one  for  himself,  the  long-suffering  patience  and  forbearance  of 
our  heavenly  Father,  who  is  not  willing  that  any  should  perish, 
hut  that  all  should  come  to  repentance,  and  that  whatever  is 
adverse  and  unprosperous  in  our  present  circumstances,  is  the 
fruit  of  our  own  headstrong  passions,  or  perverse  neglect  of  his 
word  and  warning  ;  and  we  have  only  to  consider  the  purpose 
and  appointment  of  this  day  to  be  assured  of  the  soul  comforting 
truth,  that  that  God  loho  so  loved  the  loorld  that  he  spared 
not  his  oicn  Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  willioith  him  also 
freely  give  us  all  things.  These  speaking  proofs  of  God's  love 
to  a  world  of  sinners  as  they  are  obvious  to  all,  so  do  they  speak 
to  all,  of  those  grateful,  thankful,  and  hearty  returns  of  love  and 
obedience,  which  is  the  poor  but  only  acknowledgment  we  can 
pay  for  such  unequalled  goodness,  which  all  true  Christians  feel 
and  render,  and  which  the  apostle  from  whom  my  text  is  taken 
pressed  upon  his  hearers,  with  all  the  persuasiveness  of  a  heart 
which  spake  out  of  the  abundance  wherewith  it  was  filled. 

But,  my  brethren,  while  the  tender  mercies  of  our  God  are 
thus  strong  and  imperative  in  the  claim  they  have  upon  us,  there 
is  one  circumstance  attending  this  display  of  his  love  and  com- 
passion, which  should  give  a  still  deeper  sense  of  it  to  our  souls. 
And  that  is,  that  it  was  and  is  wholly  undeserved — what  we  had 
no  right  to  expect,  neither  could  put  in  any  claim  for.  This  it 
is  which  gives  its  point  to  the  text,  and  sets  forth  the  kindness 
of  God  our  Saviour  toward  man  in  all  the  breadth,  and  length, 
and  depth,  and  height  of  his  rich,  redeeming  love.  This  it  is 
which  St.  John  presses  upon  Christians  as  the  conclusive  argu- 
ment for  that  spirit  of  love  and  fellowship  among  themselves, 
which  is  the  new  commandment  in  the  religion  of  the  gospel, 
and  the  proof,  that  as  disciples  of  Christ  we  have  passed  from 
death  unto  life.  Herein  is  love,  says  he,  not  that  we  loved  God, 
but  that  he  loved  us  and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins. 

Vol.  II.— 37 


^90  SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL. 

In  directing  your  Jiieditations  to  this  passage  of  Scripture, 
my  brethren,  I  shall  confine  your  attention  to  two  heads  of 
doctrine,  obviously  to  be  drawn  from  it. 

The  one,  that  our  '  salvation,  with  all  that  leads  to  it,  is  of 
mere  grace,  unsought  and  unprocurable  by  us. 

The  other,  that  this  salvation,  thus  wrought  out  and  offered 
to  sinners  by  the  gospel,  is  no  otherwise  attainable  than  in 
and  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

These  two  points  will  naturally  lead  to  such  practical  reflec- 
tions as  will  put  you  in  possession,  I  trust,  of  the  spirit  of  the 
text,  and  prepare  you  with  devout  and  understanding  hearts  to 
entertain  the  meditations  of  the  season,  and,  while  you  hail  the 
advent  of  the  Saviour  with  joyful  hearts,  pass  forward  in  spirit 
to  the  concluding  proof  of  that  love  which  overcame  death  with 
his  own  weapons,  and  opened  the  gate  of  everlasting  life  to 
redeemed  man ;  while  they  may  be  made  effectual  by  God's  good 
blessing  to  awaken  consideration  in  those  who,  surrounded  by 
the  love  of  God  in  the  mercies  of  the  gospel,  feel  neither  the 
benefits  they  slight,  nor  the  ingratitude  they  are  guilty  of. 

I.  First,  that  our  salvation,  with  all  that  leads  to  it,  is  of  mere 
grace,  unsought  and  unprocurable  by  us. 

As  pride  in  some  of  its  detestable  workings  was  the  cause  of 
that  transgression  which  separated  man  from  his  Maker,  and 
overspread  this  poor  world  with  sin  in  all  its  varied  but  destruc- 
tive shapes  ;  so  it  is  to  this  day  the  root  of  all  opposition  to  and 
disregard  of  the  salvation  of  the  gospel.  As  it  was  the  ground 
work  on  which  the  devil  contrived  that  temptation  which  ended 
in  the  ruin  of  our  first  parents,  so  it  is  the  great  instrument  by 
which  he  takes  captive  and  holds  in  his  snare  the  tens  of 
thousands  who,  in  spite  of  warning  and  conviction,  continue  the 
servants  of  sin.  Hence  that  swelling  and  rising  of  the  carnal 
mind  against  this  fundamental  doctrine  of  salvation  by  grace, 
and  the  strong  propensity,  even  in  awakened  man,  to  be  his  own 
saviour,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  by  his  own  merits  to 
make  out  a  title  to  the  reward  of  eternal  life.  But  assuredly 
pride  was  not  made  for  man,  either  in  his  upright  or  in  his  fallen 
condition  ;  as  a  creature,  a  created  being,  he  had  nothing  which 
he  had  not  received,  nor  could  he  rightfully  withhold  the  inward 


SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL.  291 

affections  of  his  soul  or  the  outward  service  of  his  l)0(ly  from  the 
grand  purpose  of  his  creation.  He  ventured,  however,  in  an 
evil  hour,  to  listen  to  the  whispers  of  pride,  to  think  himself  or 
his  adviser  wiser  than  God,  and,  in  the  ambitious  desire  to  know 
more  and  to  stand  higher  than  belonged  to  his  station,  he  stepped 
upon  forbidden  ground  and  sunk  into  irretrievable  ruin.  Enter- 
taining in  his  heart  another  image,  another  desire  than  of  God 
himself,  the  original  likeness  in  which  he  was  made  departed 
and  left  him  the  helpless  victim  of  sin,  spiritually  dead  and 
eternally  condemned.  This  is  no  ideal  picture,  my  friends, 
but  the  simple  truth  of  man's  condition  from  God's  true  and 
faithful  word. 

In  this  state,  what  was  left  to  the  fallen  creature  where- 
with to  undo  his  sin  and  restore  his  hope.     Could  his  betrayer 
furnish  him  to  regain  the  height  from  whence  he  was  precipi- 
tated ]     Alas  !  he  himself  had  fallen  from  a  still  higher  eleva- 
tion.    Pride  had  destroyed  the  glory  even  of  the  angelic  nature, 
and  sunk  a  seraph  to  the  bottomless  pit  of  eternal  despair.    Was 
there  aught  within  reach  of  the  sinner  himself  to  atone  for  his 
guilt,  to  make  satisfaction  for  his  offence  1     Could  ages  of  suffer- 
ing on  the  part  of  the  offender  compensate  for  his  crime  1     Alas ! 
the  offence  was  infinite,  the  offender  a  finite  dying  creature, 
every  way  betrayed  and  undone,  without  help,  and  devoid  even 
of  hope.  Whence  came  his  deliverance  ]  Blessed  be  the  Father 
of  mercies,  that  we  are  able  to  answer  this  question,  to  trace  to 
its  source  both  our  ruin  and  recovery,  and  in  the  truth  of  his 
holy  word,  in  the  help  of  his  renewing  grace,  to  know  whence 
our  salvation  cometh  ;  to  know  that  when  there  was  no  eye  to 
pity,  no  hand  to  save,  his  own  right  hand  and  his  holy  arm  hath 
gotten  him  the  victory,  and  wrought  out  salvation  for  us ;  that 
to  the  antecedent  original  love   and  compassion  of   God  the 
Father  Almighty,  we  owe  the  whole  work  of  our  redemption. 
This  the  Scriptures  set  forth  to  us  in  a  great  number  of  places 
and   in   much   variety   of  expression,  and   our  Lord  himself 
uniformly  teaches  this  doctrine—/  came  not  to  do  mine  own  will 
but  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me  :  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should 
not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life :    And  the  gospel  itself,  as 


^92  SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL. 

containing  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation,  is  styled  the  gospel  of 
the  grace  of  God.  Indeed,  no  doctrine  is  more  clearly  taught 
throughout  both  the  gospels  and  epistles  than  this,  that  to 
the  original  goodness  and  mercy  of  God  the  Father,  we 
owe  both  the  appointment  and  acceptance  of  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ's  death  as  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world- 
God  commendeth  his  love  towards  us,  saith  St.  Paul,  in  that  while 
ice  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for  us;  and  the  same  apostle 
sums  up  the  whole  in  one  short  sentence — The  wages  of  sin  is 
death,  but  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord. 

If  saved  at  all,  then,  my  friends — that  is,  if  provision  is  made 
for  our  deliverance  from  the  curse  entailed  upon  sin,  and  means 
appointed  to  restore  the  image  of  God  in  our  souls,  and  bring 
us  back  to  that  glorious  and  happy  state  from  whence  we  are 
fallen  and  far  distant — it  must  be  altogether  of  mere  grace  on  the 
part  of  God,  nothing  moving  him  thereto  but  the  original  inhe- 
rent compassion  of  his  nature,  and  pity  for  the  work  of  his  hands, 
betrayed  and  ruined  by  the  malice  of  the  devil.  Herein  is  love, 
ray  brethren,  even  the  love  of  God  ;  and  let  us  keep  it  steadily 
in  view,  ascribing  to  the  glorious  Trinity  in  our  salvation,  what 
is  due  to  each  and  to  all ;  for  it  is  an  unworthy  and  improper 
notion  of  Almighty  God  to  conceive  of  him  as  so  implacable  and 
severe  that  he  was  only  prevailed  on  by  the  interposition  of 
Christ  to  have  mercy  on  fallen  man,  as  a  passionate  man  is 
sometimes  made  to  yield  by  the  entreaties  of  his  friend.  It  is 
the  undoubted  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures,  that  while,  as  the 
righteous  governor  of  the  universe,  he  was  bound  to  punish  sin, 
yet  as  the  Lord  God  merciful  and  gracious,  he  contrived, 
appointed,  and  accepted  those  wonderful  means,  by  which, 
while  sin  should  not  go  unpunished,  a  door  of  mercy  and  hope 
was  opened  to  the  sinner.  Oh  !  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the 
wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God,  how  unsearchable  are  his  judg- 
ments, and  his  ways  past  finding  out. 

But  our  salvation,  my  brethren,  is  shown  to  be  yet  more 
strictly  of  mere  grace,  inasmuch  as  it  was  unsought  and  unpro- 
curable by  any  means  in  our  reach. 

Here,  my  friends,  we  have  an  opportunity  of  viewing  sin  in 


SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL.  293 

all  its  malignity,  not  only  in  exposing  us  to  the  loss  of  God's 
favour  and  the  terrors  of  his  w^rath,  but  in  hardening  the  heart 
against  them,  and  deadening  the  spiritual  sense  to  the  desire  to 
be  delivered  from  them.  The  sinner  never  prays.  Of  this  we 
have  a  memorable  instance  in  the  first  transgressors  ;  no  symp- 
tom of  contrition,  no  sorrow  of  heart  for  the  offence  they  have 
committed  against  their  Maker  and  Benefactor,  is  manifested  by 
either  of  them  ;  they  knew  and  felt  that  they  were  guilty,  and 
their  guilt  led  them  to  hide  themselves  from  Him  whose 
voice  had  heretofore  been  music  to  their  ears  ;  no  supplication 
for  mercy,  no  prayer  for  pardon,  no  entreaty  for  a  mitigation  of 
their  sentence  is  heard  from  them,  any  more  than  from  their 
betrayer  ;  nothing  is  seen  in  them  but  the  hard  and  sullen 
temper  which  disdains  acknowledgment  and  resents  reproof. 
Oh  !  how  near  to  the  state  and  temper  of  devils  does  sin  reduce 
its  votaries  ;  yet,  at  this  very  moment,  did  the  infinite  compas- 
sion of  God  meet  them  with  the  mercies  of  redemption, 
unsought,  unprocurable.  Freely,  and  of  his  unbounded  good- 
ness and  love,  did  the  Father  of  mercies,  the  God  of  all  comfort 
and  consolation,  while  denouncing  the  curse  under  which  we 
all  labour,  present  his  only  and  well  beloved  Son,  to  shield  them 
and  us  their  progeny  from  the  demands  of  the  law,  broken  and 
dishonoured  by  their  sin,  and  in  due  time  to  become  that  seed  of 
the  woman  which  should  bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent;  and 
freely  did  the  love  of  Christ  move  him  to  undertake  the  mighty 
ransom  of  them,  and  of  the  countless  millions  which  fell  in  them. 
Thus  is  our  salvation  from  first  to  last,  my  brethren,  of  the 
mere  grace  and  unsought  favour  of  a  merciful  God.  Herein  is 
love,  dear  brethren,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us, 
and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins.  O  that  the 
hard  hearts  of  the  impenitent  and  ungodly  ma}'  melt  and  soften 
under  this  wonderful  display  of  God's  hatred  of  their  sins  and 
love  for  their  souls.  O  that  the  proud  and  lofty  despisers  of  the 
cross  of  Christ,  may  in  this  see  on  -^yhat  a  sandy  foundation 
their  self-righteous  hopes  are  built,  and,  renouncing  their  own 
righteousness,  submit  themselves  to  the  righteousness  of  God, 
whichis  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  whom  God  hath  set  forth  to 


294  SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL. 

be  a  propiiiation  through  faith  in  his  blood,  that  he  might  he  just 
and  the  justifier  of  all  that  believe  in  this  Redeemer. 

II.  For  the  salvation  thus  wrought  out  and  offered  to  sinners 
by  the  gospel,  is  no  otherwise  attainable  than  through  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

This  is  evident,  not  only  from  the  express  declarations  of 
Scripture,  but  from  the  nature  of  the  thing  itself. 

The  whole  of  our  salvation  being  founded  on  the  gratuitous 
appointment  of  Almighty  God,  the  means  to  be  used  by  us  in 
the  attainment  of  it  must  be  ordered  and  directed  by  the  same 
all-wise  and  gracious  Being.  Inventions  and  contrivances  of 
men  can  have  no  place  in  this  great  work,  and  can  only  tend 
to  defeat  its  efficacy  on  those  who  in  this  manner  add  to  or  take 
away  from  the  more  sure  word  of  prophecy.  The  object  in 
view  being  two-fold,  not  merely  the  deliverance  of  the  sinner 
from  punishment  by  the  substitution  of  an  atonement  sufficient 
for  the  expiation  of  his  guilt,  but,  furthermore,  the  renewal  and 
sanctification  of  his  corrupt  and  sinful  nature,  without  which 
there  can  be  no  salvation,  it  must  follow  that  He  who  made  us,  who 
saw  the  full  extent  of  our  undoing,  and  knew  the  fittest  means 
to  counteract  the  apostacy  of  accountable  creatures,  alone  could 
judge  and  appoint  what  was  most  effectual  to  this  end,  and  at 
the  same  time  most  consonant  with  his  own  perfections. 

Again,  as  God  was  the  party  offended  by  human  sin,  it  rested 
solely  with  himself  whether  to  accept  any,  or  what  kind  of 
atonement  for  it,  as  also  what  application  to  make  of  the  altered 
condition  of  his  creature.  It  was  not  for  the  sinner  at  the  time, 
neither  is  it  for  him  now,  to  say  by  v/hom  or  on  what  conditions 
he  will  be  saved.  His  part  is  the  deepest  thankfulness  for  such 
an  unspeakable  gift,  with  the  most  earnest  and  devoted  diligence 
to  walk  worthy  of  it.  Thus  we  judge  in  things  of  a  temporal 
nature,  my  hearers,  and  the  same  rule  will  equally  apply  to 
those  eternal  things  now  under  consideration.  But  when  to 
this  reasoning  we  add  the  clear  and  unequivocal  declarations  of 
God's  revealed  word,  as  respects  both  our  ruiri  and  our  remedy, 
there  can  be  no  refuge  but  in  unbelief.  Ml  have  sinned  and 
come  short  of  the  glory  of  God.  There  is  none  righteous,  no  not 
one.      Cursed  is  every  one  that  continueth  not,  in  all  things  loritten 


SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL.  295 

in  the  hook  of  the.  law,  to  do  ihem.  As  hy  one  man  sin  entered 
into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin — so  death  passed  upon  all  men^ 
for  that  all  have  sinned.  Therefore,  as  by  the  offence  of  one 
judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  condemnation,  even  so  by  the 
righteousness  of  one  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men  unto  justification 
of  life.  For  ivhen  toe  were  yet  without  strength,  in  due  time  Christ 
died  for  the  ungodly.  For  what  the  law  could  not  do,  in  that  it 
loas  weak  through  the  flesh,  God  sending  his  own  Son,  in  the  like- 
ness of  sinful  flesh,  and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh.  For  he 
hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us  who  knew  no  sin,  that  we  might  be 
made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him.  For  ice  see  Jesus,  leho 
was  made  a  little  lower  than  the  angels  for  the  suffering  of  death, 
crowned  with  glory  and  honour,  that  he,  by  the  grace  of  God,  should 
taste  death  for  every  man.  Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalt- 
ed him  and  given  him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name,  that  at 
the  name  0/ Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and 
things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth.  JVeither  is  there  salva- 
tion in  any  other,  for  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given 
among  men  whereby  we  must  he  saved  only  the  name  of  Jesvs 
Christ  of  JSTazareth.  Many  more  passages  of  Scripture  of  a 
similar  import  migiit  be  brought  forward,  my  brethren  and 
hearers,  but  these  I  think  quite  sufficient,  because  whoever  can 
withstand  them  would  just  as  readily  resist  the  whole  artillery 
of  the  word  of  God.  Thus  is  it  shown  you,  my  friends,  that  our 
whole  salvation  is  of  the  mere  grace  of  Almighty  God,  unde- 
served, unsought,  and  unprocurable  by  us,  and  that  no  otherwise 
is  it  attainable  by  us  than  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Many  and  various  are  the  reflections,  my  brethren,  which 
rise  in  the  mind  on  a  near  view  like  this  of  the  state  and  condi- 
tion of  accountable  creatures,  whom  a  few  short  years,  perhaps 
days,  perhaps  hours — who  can  tell — must  consign  to  all  the 
realities  of  an  eternal  world,  to  the  righteous  judgment  of  God, 
to  heaven  or  to  hell.  There  is  something  deeply  affecting  in 
such  a  thought,  and  the  more  so,  when  it  applies  to  relations 
and  friends,  to  neighbours  and  acquaintances,  persons  whom 
we  know,  for  whom  we  entertain  a  regard,  but  of  whom  we 
are  obliged  to  know  that  religious  considerations  form  none,  or 
but  a  very  small  part  in  their  estimate  of  happiness.     Can  it  be 


296  SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL. 

because  they  do  not  believe  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  future 
state  1  This  is  next  to  impossible  ;  and  if  you  ask  them  they  will 
tell  you  they  have  no  doubt  of  it.  Is  it  because  they  reject  the 
revelation  God  hath  made  to  us  1  They  say  no — both  by  speech 
and  otherwise,  for  not  one  of  them  but  what  hopes  for  the  mercy 
of  God  upon  his  soul ;  and  otherwise  than  by  revelation  we  can 
none  of  us  know  any  thing  of  mercy  with  God.  To  what,  then, 
must  we  attribute  this  almost  universal  disregard  of  the  things 
that  are  most  surely  believed  among  us  1  Alas  !  my  brethren, 
to  what  but  that  love  of  sin,  in  some  of  its  deceitful  shapes,  which 
is  stronger  than  all  those  cords  of  love  wherewith  God  daily 
and  hourly  draws  them  to  himself — more  powerful  than  the 
compassionate  intreaties  of  Christ,  the  lively  admonitions  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  reason  and  conviction  of  their  own 
minds — yea,  more  alluring  than  the  joys  of  heaven,  and  hardly 
restrained  by  the  torments  of  hell.  This  is  the  cause  why  such 
multitudes  of  old  and  young,  of  high  and  low,  of  rich  and  poor, 
of  bond  and  free,  even  with  the  gospel  of  salvation  in  their  hands, 
prefer  a  portion  in  this  life,  and  live  without  God  in  the  world. 
The  aged,  too  often,  it  is  to  be  feared,  have  trifled  with  their 
day  of  grace  until  it  has  passed  away  from  them,  never  to  return. 
In  the  middle  stage  of  life,  when  all  the  faculties  are  in  perfec- 
tion, and  accountability  at  its  height,  when  experience  might 
teach  some  wisdom,  yet  then  it  is  that  the  God  of  this  world  is 
most  devoutly  worshipped.  One  goes  to  his  farm  and  another  to 
his  merchandise,  one  chases  ambition  and  another  pursues  plea- 
sure, regardless  of  the  steady  though  silent  approach  of  that 
hour  when  it  shall  be  said  unto  each.  Thou  fool,  this  night  thy 
soul  shall  be  required  of  thee,  then  whose  shall  those  things  be  which 
thou  hast  provided. 

In  early  life,  when  this  fleeting  scene  spreads  all  its  enchant- 
ments, when  passion  warms  and  hope  flatters,  when  reason 
yields,  and  prudence  is  yet  remote,  it  is  but  an  unwelcome  office 
to  hint  at  the  then  far  off  things  of  eternity,  indeed  it  is  too  com- 
monly an  useless  one.  Yet  then  is  the  time  :  ere  the  heart  is 
hardened,  and  shame  deadened,  and  the  conscience  seared  in 
the  crooked  and  cruel  paths  of  dissipated,  sinful  pleasure.  O 
for  a  warning  voice  to  reach  the  hearts  of  the  thousands  of 


SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL.  297 

young  and  comparatively  innocent  creatures  who  are  now  on 
the  turning  point  of  life  and  death  eternal.  O  for  a  warning 
voice  to  reach  the  hearts  of  fathers  and  mothers,  Christians  as 
well  as  others,  in  behalf  of  the  rising  generation.  But,  alas  !  so 
many  fathers  and  mothers  look  only  at  this  world,  that  they 
encourage  what  they  ought  to  check,  and  vitiate  the  minds 
while  they  deck  the  bodies  of  their  offspring  in  all  the  meretri- 
cious ornaments  of  alluring  fashion  ;  so  that  even  Christian 
parents  are  constrained  to  do  like  their  neighbours,  and  thus 
evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners.  O  that  the  young 
persons  and  their  parents  who  are  now  present  would  let  me 
strip  the  mask  from  this  hydra  of  fashion  and  folly,  that  they 
may  see  the  diseases  and  death  both  of  body  and  soul  that  lurk 
beneath  it — that  they  would  let  me  show  them  the  thorn 
beneath  the  rose,  ere  it  enter  into  their  flesh  and  rankle  and 
fester  into  a  wounded  spirit — that  they  would  let  me  discover 
the  serpent  beneath  the  flower  ere  it  sting  them  to  madness. 
O  that  they  would  hear  the  voice  of  one  who  has  tried  it  in 
all  its  depths,  yea,  drank  it  to  the  dregs,  and  only  by  the  love 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  has  been  saved  from  total  shipwreck 
of  body  and  soul  in  hell.  O  if  there  is  truth  in  God,  if  there 
is  warning  in  his  word,  if  there  is  wisdom  in  experience,  now 
let  it  take  eifect,  and  this  deadly  evil  be  put  away  from  us,  my 
brethren.  Say  not  with  Lot,  Is  it  not  a  little  one  ?  Alas  1  know 
ye  not  that  even  in  this  sense,  a  little  one  shall  become  a  thousand, 
and  a  small  one  a  strong  nation  ?  For  the  beginning  of  sin,  as' 
well  as  of  strife,  is  like  the  letting  out  of  waters,  no  one  can  say 
where  it  shall  stop.  ^ 

But  to  return.  That  God  who  has  no  need  of  the  sinful 
man — who  could,  with  the  most  perfect  ease,  have  called  a  new 
race  of  beings  into  existence,  should,  nevertheless,  prefer  that 
method  of  his  mercy  which  revelation  makes  known  to  us,  to 
promote  his  own  glory  and  the  final  good  of  his  creatures,  must 
ever  be  a  subject  of  the  deepest  admiration  and  thankfulness, 
and  should  teach  us  that  it  is  not  to  be  trifled  with.  We  may 
be  very  sure,  my  hearers,  that  as  the  gift  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  highest  proof  God  could  give  of  his  love  towards  us,  either 
to  reject  or  to  neglect  it  must  be  the  height  of  contempt. 

Vol.  II.— 38 


298  SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL. 

ingratitude,  and  rebellion,  and  can  never  go  unpunished.  We 
may,  and,  alas  !  we  do,  too  many  of  us,  flatter  ourselves  that 
after  all,  God  will  not  be  so  severe  as  to  carry  his  threatenings 
into  full  effect ;  that,  some  how  or  another,  the  great  mass  of 
irreligious  people  who  are  not  openly  profligate  and  abandoned, 
will  escape  the  damnation  of  hell.  But  what  is  this,  my  friends, 
but  one  of  those  many  deceits  of  the  devil  operating  upon  our 
love  of  sin,  with  which  he  labours  to  ensnare  souls  1  what  is  it 
but  making  Christ  the  minister  of  sin,  and  religion  a  pious 
fraud.  But  we  are  sure  that  God  cannot  and  will  not  deceive. 
We  are  sure  that  there  is  no  deception  in  the  hatred  his  pure 
and  holy  nature  bears  towards  sin  in  all  its  shapes.  The 
miseries  of  the  present  life,  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  the  pains 
of  hell,  bear  witness  to  its  malignity  ;  and  had  it  been  possible 
that  God  should  intend  to  deceive  us  for  our  good  by  heighten- 
ing the  description  of  its  destructive  nature,  this  might  have 
been  done  without  the  humiliation,  sufferings,  and  death  of  his 
only  Son.  What  a  desperate  game,  then,  must  it  be  to  risk  our 
immortal  souls  on  so  flimsy  a  delusion  !  What  an  awful  proof 
of  the  corruption  of  all  our  faculties  by  the  poison  of  sin,  that 
against  light  and  knowledge,  against  warning  and  conviction, 
unmoved  by  hope,  unawed  by  fear,  in  defiance  of  God's  threat- 
ened wrath,  in  despite  of  his  offered  love,  in  contempt  of  means 
and  mercies,  we  continue  in  sin,  slight  the  only  Saviour,  and 
will  not  come  to  him  that  we  may  have  life  !  Oh  !  what  a  specta- 
cle does  the  world  called  Christian  present — God's  holy  word 
laid  aside,  unbelief  and  impiety  increasing,  the  ordinances  of 
religion  made  light  cf,  the  cross  of  Christ  slighted,  sin  and 
folly  triumphant,  and  the  children  of  God  to  be  sought  for  here 
and  there,  like  gleaning  grapes  in  a  vineyard  ! 

And  now,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  as  God  hath  laid  help 
for  us  upon  one  who  is  mighty  and  able  to  save,  as  without  him 
we  can  do  nothing  acceptable  to  God,  or  available  for  the  sal- 
vation of  our  souls,  let  us  consider  the  Apostle  and  High  Priest 
of  our  profession,  Christ  Jesus,  in  what  he  hath,  by  the  will 
of  God,  done  for  us. 

He  hath  removed  the  barrier  raised  by  human  sin  betwixt 


SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL.  299 

God  and  our  souls,  and  placed  mankind  in  a  new  relation  to 
their  Maker,  becoming  a  second  Adam  or  representative  of  the 
human  race.  In  this  sense  it  is  that  the  Lord  hath  laid  on  him 
the  iniquity  of  us  all,  and  that  he,  bij  the  grace  of  God,  tasted  death 
for  every  man,  having  borne  in  his  own  body  the  curse  of  the 
law.  To  Christians,  in  particular,  that  is,  to  baptized  believers, 
he  hath  opened  a  new  and  living  way  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
through  faith  in  his  blood.  He  hath  fulfilled  the  conditions 
of  the  covenant  of  works  for  them,  and  procured  a  new 
and  more  gracious  covenant  by  which  repentance  and  renew- 
ed obedience  Is  accepted  through  him  instead  of  sinless  per- 
fection. He  hath  fully  declared  and  made  known  the  will  of 
God,  for  the  direction  of  their  lives,  and  left  them  the  example  of 
his  own  life  as  the  explanation  of  it.  He  hath  sent  forth  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  be  a  perpetual  guide  and  comfort  to  his  Church, 
in  working  out  their  salvation.  He  hath  laid  down  his  life  upon 
the  cross,  for  their  forfeited  lives,  and  poured  out  his  blood  as 
an  atonement  to  God,  for  all  sins  repented  of  and  forsaken.  He 
was  buried  and  rose  again  the  third  day,  thereby  giving  assur- 
ance unto  all  men,  that  the  sacrifice  was  accepted,  and  that 
they  also  shall  rise  again  from  the  dead.  He  hath  thus  brought 
that  life  and  immortality  to  light,  through  the  gospel,  in  which 
every  man  shall  be  happy  or  miserable  for  ever,  according  to  the 
righteous  judgment  of  God  on  the  deeds  done  in  the  body. 
And  he  hath  ascended  into  heaven,  where,  as  the  bead 
of  all  principality  and  power,  he  rules  and  governs  his 
Church  as  a  son  in  his  own  house,  watching  over  his  people, 
supplying  their  wants,  and  rendering  their  prayers  and  praises 
acceptable  to  God,  through  his  prevailing  intercessions  for 
them. 

All  this  he  hath  done  for  us,  my  hearers.  This  he  hath  done 
and  suffered,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God.  Of  his  death,  as 
the  price  of  all,  he  hath  commanded  us  to  continue  a  perpetual 
memorial,  until  he  come  again  to  receive  us  to  himself.  That 
memorial  is  now  before  you.  The  mighty  benefits  it  represents 
you  are  partakers  of,  through  grace.  Let  us  then  draw  near 
with  true  hearts,  in  full  assurance  of  faith,  that,  if  when  ice  were 


300  SALVATION    THROUGH    GRACE    SACRAMENTAL. 

ene7nies  we  were  reconciled  io  God  %  the  death  of  his  Son,  much 
more  being  reconciled  we  shall  be  saved  by  his  life.  And  let  it 
be  ever  in  our  hearts,  dear  brethren,  that  herein  is  love  indeed, 
not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  to  be 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins. 


SERMON  XXVI. 


NEGLECT    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


Hebrews  ii.  3,  4. 


"How  shall  we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation  ;  which  at  the  first  began  to 
be  spoken  by  the  Loed,  and  was  confirmed  unto  us  by  them  that  heard  him  ;  God 
also  bearing  them  witness,  botli  with  signs  and  wonders,  and  with  divers  miracles 
and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  according  to  his  own  will '! " 

The  consideration  of  the  question  put  in  the  text,  instructs 
us,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  how  very  inexcusable  all  men  are 
who  neglect  the  salvation  offered  in  the  gospel,  either  by  reject- 
ing it  through  unbelief,  when  proposed  to  them,  or  by  living  un- 
worthily of  it  after  they  have  professed  to  embrace  it.  There 
are  many  considerations  which  greatly  aggravate  the  fault  of 
such  persons  as  contemptuously  neglect  the  proposal  of  a  favour, 
which  it  is  both  their  duty  and  their  highest  interest  to  accept ; 
and  many  circumstances  make  them  more  and  more  inexcusable, 
and  justly  to  deserve  the  severest  punishment  for  their  ingrati- 
tude and  contempt.  Now  as  we  regulate  our  judgments  accord- 
ing to  this  principle,  in  the  common  affairs  of  this  life,  it  is  but 
just  that  it  should  be  extended  to  the  higher  and  more  important 
concerns  of  the  life  that  is  to  come  ;  and  it  is  to  this  j^oint,  to 
the  equity  of  the  case,  that  St.  Paul  directs  our  attention.  And 
to  gain  your  attention,  my  friends,  and  to  engage  you  in  behalf 
of  your  best  interests,  to  rouse  you,  if  possible,  from  the  heart- 
less torpor  of  indifference  to  the  mercies  of  redemption,  and 
awaken  you  to  the  worth  of  your  souls,  I  will  endeavour  to 
point  out  from  the  text  itself,  what  commanding  considera- 
tions are  set  at  naught,  and  what  clear  and  convincing  proofs 
are  withstood,  by  all  who  neglect  the  gospel. 

Hotv  shall  we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation,  which 
at  the  first  began  to  be  spoken  by  the  Lord,  and  was  confirmed 
unto  us  by  them  that  heard  him ;   God  also  hearing  them  witness 


302  NEGLECT    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

both  with  signs  and  iconders,  and  iinlh  divers  miracles  and  gifts  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  according  to  his  own  nnll? 

In  these  words  are  contained, 

I.  First,  the  intrinsic  goodness  and  excellency  of  the  thing 
itself,  which  is  rejected. 

A  slight  acquaintance  with  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  sufficient 
to  impress  upon  the  mind  of  every  man  some  idea  of  its  import- 
ance ;  and  as  this  should  naturally  incline  those  who  possess 
this  advantage  to  search  deeper  into  its  high  discoveries,  the 
neglect  of  this  duty  is  generally  attended  with  a  corresponding 
carelessness,  either  as  to  its  promises  or  its  threatenings,  and  a 
deeper  engagement  with  present  things.  For  it  is,  when  viewed 
in  its  whole  extent,  in  its  divine  origin,  its  gracious  purpose  and 
effectual  means,  it  is,  when  considered  in  its  application  to  the 
condition  of  man,  that  we  discern  what  the  gospel  really  is,  and 
learn  that  it  is  truly  a  great  salvation. 

It  is  a  salvation  from  sin  and  misery,  from  the  power  and 
tyranny  of  the  devil,  and  from  the  punishment  of  eternal  death. 
Sin,  in  its  own  nature,  independent  of  its  being  an  obstinate 
disobedience  to  the  revealed  will  of  God,  is  in  itself  every  way 
unreasonable  and  inexcusable ;  because  it  is  opposite  to  the  light 
of  reason,  the  dictates  of  natural  conscience,  and  the  agreeing 
opinion  of  all  wise  and  good  men ;  because  it  is  contrary  to 
every  idea  we  can  form  of  the  perfections  of  God,  destructive 
to  the  public  welfare  of  mankind,  to  the  health  of  our  own 
bodies,  to  the  peace  of  our  own  minds,  and  to  the  order,  quiet, 
and  comfort  of  society.  The  love  and  practice  of  sin  is  the 
subjecting  our  reason  to  vile  affections,  to  inordinate  and  brutish 
appetites,  to  inflamed  and  ungoverned  passions,  than  which 
there  cannot  be  a  more  abject  state  of  slavery  imagined  for  a 
rational  being.  To  speak  after  the  manner  of  men,  how  con- 
trary to  the  dignity  of  man  to  see  and  approve  what  is  good, 
and  yet  not  be  able  to  prevail  with  ourselves  to  practise  it ;  to  be 
sensible  of  the  destructive  consequences  of  sin,  and  yet,  through 
the  strength  of  evil  habits,  to  continue  under  the  power  and 
dominion  of  it ;  to  feel  ourselves  deprived  of  our  present  happi- 
ness, and  of  our  best  hopes  of  what  is  to  come,  to  travel  through 
life  loaded  with  and  conscious  of  guilt,  to  lie  down  in  death 


NEGLECT  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  303 

Overwlielmcd  with  remorse  and  despair,  whicli  every  impeni- 
tent sinner  must  do,  and  yet  to  continue  to  cherish  such  vicious 
dispositions  and  practices,  as  are  the  only  causes  of  all  this 
misery,  is  evidently  the  most  dreadful  condition  that  can  be. 

Now  to  have  a  way  proposed  to  us,  my  hearers,  of  being 
delivered  from  this  body  of  sin  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
children  of  God,  of  breaking  the  chain  w^hich  binds  every  fallen 
creature  to  this  body  of  death,  to  have  a  method  laid  before  us 
of  being  rescued  from  guilt  and  fear  in  life,  from  horror  and 
despair  in  death,  and  from  everlasting  burnings  in  eternity,  and 
to  be  put  into  a  way  of  securing  a  quiet  conscience,  the  peace  of 
God  through  life,  hope  and  composure  in  death,  and  eternal 
life  in  mansions  of  glory  for  ever  and  ever,  this  is  the  otFer  of 
a  great  salvation.  And  evident  it  must  be  to  the  equity  of  our 
own  minds,  that  whoever  shall  neglect  this  offer  is  absolutely 
inexcusable,  and  justly  deserves  to  fall  into  that  misery  from 
which  he  would  not  accept  deliverance.  Was  there,  indeed, 
any  other  way  to  accomplish  this  work,  had  we  a  choice  in  the 
means  of  deliverance  from  the  power  and  the  punishment  of 
sin,  the  case  were  different ;  but  as  this  is  not  so,  as  salvation  is 
altogether  of  grace,  as  there  is  no  other  name  or  means  under 
heaven  given  unto  men  whereby  we  must  be  saved,  only  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth,  and  the  means  revealed 
in  the  gospel,  the  guilt  and  folly  of  neglecting  it  is  hereby 
infinitely  increased,  because  it  is  treating  God's  offered  mercy 
and  favour  with  contempt,  and  adding  ingratitude  to  rebellion 
against  his  revealed  will,  and  is  therefore  worthy  of  the  severest 
punishment.     For 

II.  Secondly,  the  further  consideration  that  the  gospel  is  an 
express  and  positive  revelation  of  the  will  of  God,  is  a  very  high 
aggravation  of  the  sin  of  neglecting  so  great  salvation. 

He  that,  on  the  information  of  the  gospel,  desires  not  to  be 
delivered  from  the  dominion  of  sin,  and  acquires  no  thirst  after 
a  life  of  righteousness,  for  that  very  reason  does  not  deserve  to 
be  saved  from  the  punishment  of  sin,  and  is,  in  his  very  nature, 
unqualified  for  the  rewards  of  holiness.  But  when  to  this 
preference  of  sin,  there  is  added,  moreover,  a  direct  contempt 
of  God,  the  reasonableness  of  leaving  such  person  to  himself, 


304  NEGLECT    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

and  of  finally  punishing  him  for  his  sin,  is  increased  into  a 
necessity,  because  God  must  and  will  maintain  the  honour  of 
his  supreme  dominion,  and  vindicate  upon  all  such  despisers  the 
insult  offered  to  the  purity  and  holiness  of  his  divine  attributes. 
When  God,  in  the  exercise  of  his  mercy  and  love,  has  declared 
unto  men  his  will  by  an  immediate  revelation,  when  he  has 
given  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  beUeveth  in  him  should 
not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.  When  he  has  offered  pardon 
to  sinners  upon  their  sincere  repentance,  vouchsafed  them  the 
assistance  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  to  enable  them  to  fulfil  this  and 
every  other  duty  enjoined  upon  them,  and  promised  them  eternal 
life  as  the  reward  of  their  faith  and  obedience  ;  when,  moreover, 
the  wrath  of  God  is,  by  the  gospel,  most  expressly  revealed 
from  heaven  against  all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness  of  men; 
after  all  this,  to  continue  still  to  despise  so  great  salvation — what 
is  it  but  with  a  high  hand  to  exalt  ourselves  against  God — an 
avowed  despising  and  contemning  his  authority — an  actual  daring 
of  his  vengeance,  and  saying,  in  so  many  words,  we  will  not  have 
this  man  to  reign  over  us.  And  is  this  the  language  of  all  present 
who  have  not  embraced  the  gospel,  who  have  not  said  to  the 
world  by  their  professed  subjection  to  its  holy  requirements, 
that  they  are  on  the  Lord's  side,  or  who  are  walking  unworthy 
of  such  profession  1  Yes,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  thus 
heaven  interprets  the  language  of  your  actions,  of  your  course 
and  conversation  in  the  world.  Whatever  you  may  think,  what- 
ever you  may  intend  hereafter,  if  you  are  now  unknown  to  the 
gospel,  by  an  open  confession  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
before  men,  you  are  unknown  to  God  in  any  saving  sense,  and 
unentitled  to  the  hope  of  the  gospel ;  you  are  neglecters  of  this 
great  salvation,  purchased  at  so  high  a  price,  so  freely  offered  to 
you,  so  earnestly  pressed  upon  you,  and  pregnant  with  such 
infinite  consequences.  For  on  this  mighty  interest  no  neutrality 
can  be  permitted. — He  that  is  not  for  me  is  against  me,  saith  the 
Lord.  And  this  is  confirmed  to  us  by  a  variety  of  considerations. 
For,  if  sinning  barely  against  the  law  of  nature,  the  law  written 
in  the  heart,  was  sufficient  to  consign  sinners  of  this  sort  to 
unavoidable  destruction,  well  may  we  ask,  How  shall  we  escape 
if  we  continue  to  neglect  this  great  salvation,  and  to  sin  against  the 


NEGLECT    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  305 

law  of  nature  and  revelation  united.  As  many  as  have  sinned 
without  law,  shall  also  perish  without  law,  and  as  many  as  have 
sinned  in  the  law,  shall  be  judged  by  the  law.  If  the  servant  that 
knew  not  his  Lord's  will,  who  had  no  express  revelation  of  the 
will  of  God,  was  nevertheless  to  be  beaten  with  stripes,  because 
he  did  things  in  themselves  worthy  of  stripes,  how  much  more 
severely  must  they  expect  to  be  punished,  who  do  the  same 
things  in  direct  opposition  to  the  express  will  and  known  com- 
mand of  God  1  Are  there  any  present,  then,  who  know  this 
and  yet  neglect  the  gospel  1  How  shall  they  escape  ?  Are  there 
any  present  who  know  not  the  conditions  of  the  gospel  1  God 
forbid  !  But  lest  there  should  be  such  a  one,  and  to  refresh  your 
memories,  hear  them  now — Repent  and  believe  the  gospel ;  repent 
and  be  converted  every  one  of  you,  that  your  sins  may  be  blotted 
out ;  except  ye  repent  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish,  for  God  now 
commandeth  all  men  every  where  to  repent,  because  he  hath  appoint- 
ed a  day  in  the  ivhich  he  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  by 
that  man  whom  he  hath  ordained  :  We  must  all  stand  before  the 
judgment  seat  of  Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  according  to  the 
deeds  done  in  the  body,  ichether  they  be  good  or  whether  they  he  evil. 

If,  thei'efore,  after  that  the  clearest  light  is  come  into  the 
world,  and  none  under  the  gospel  can  plead  ignorance  of  his 
duty,  men  will  still  neglect  this  great  salvation,  there  being 
no  excuse  left,  no  alleviation  of  their  condemnation  is  to  be 
expected.     They  must  perish  for  ever. 

III.  Thirdly,  the  dignity  and  excellency  of  the  person  by  and 
through  whom  this  salvation  is  proposed  to  us,  is  a  further 
aggravation  of  the  sin  of  rejecting  it.  It  first  began  to  be  spoken 
by  the  Lord. 

The  dignity  of  the  person  by  whose  interposition  any  favour 
is  procured,  and  by  whom  it  is  transmitted,  shows  both  the 
greatness  and  importance  of  the  thing  itself,  and  the  love  and 
condescension  of  the  original  author  of  it ;  and  the  neglecting 
it  in  this  case,  implies  not  only  folly,  contempt,  and  rebellion, 
but,  moreover,  the  greatest  obstinacy  also  which  no  authority 
can  prevail  over,  together  with  the  basest  ingratitude,  which  no 
kindness  can  overcome.  And  surely,  my  friends  and  hearers, 
whoever  is  guilty  of  this  complicated  opposition  to  God,  all  of 

Vol.  II.— 39 


306  NEGLECT    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

which  is  implied  in  the  neglect  of  this  great  salvation,  must  be 
confessed  to  deserve  most  justly  the  severest  of  punishments. 
This  is  what  our  Saviour  compelled  the  Jews  to  acknowledge, 
and  made  them  condemn  themselves  for  it  with  their  own 
mouths,  in  the  parable  of  the  householder,  who,  having  planted 
a  vineyard  and  let  it  out  to  husbandmen,  first  sent  his  servants 
to  receive  the  fruits  of  it ;  and  when  the  husbandmen  had 
resisted  and  slain  the  servants,  he  afterwards  sent  his  own  son 
to  them,  saying,  Surely  they  will  reverence  my  son ;  but  him  also 
they  resisted  and  slew — whereupon,  when  our  Saviour  ap- 
pealed to  the  Pharisees  themselves  to  judge  what  it.  was  fit 
for  the  lord  of  the  vineyard  to  do  unto  those  husbandmen,  they 
immediately  replied.  He  will  miserably  destroy  those  loicked  men, 
and  let  out  his  vineyard  to  other  husbandmen,  loho  shall  render  him 
the  fruits  in  their  seasons.  Unwarily,  thus,  they  passed  a  just  sen- 
tence against  themselves,  that  for  rejecting  the  gospel  preached 
by  Christ  himself,  they  deserved  a  severer  condemnation  than 
their  fathers,  who  had  before  rejected  the  preaching  and  admo- 
nitions of  the  prophets. 

And  may  not  a  similar  condemnation  be,  in  like  manner, 
draAvn  from  the  mouth  of  every  soul  under  the  gospel  who 
neglects  this  great  salvation  1  Is  it  not,  in  fact,  a  refusal,  by 
such,  of  the  fruits  of  the  vineyard  to  the  great  Householder, 
through  his  only  Son  ?  And  is  not  this  the  very  application  St. 
Paul  points  us  to  when  he  says,  noio  all  these  things  happened 
unto  them  for  ensamples,  and  they  are  written  for  our  admonition  upon 
whom  the  ends  of  t)ie  loorld  are  come.  Christians  are  now  the 
Lord's  vineyard,  gospel  lands  are  his  inheritance,  and  if  any  of 
us  refuse  the  fruits  in  their  season,  we  bring  ourselves  into  the 
same  condemnation,  and  must  perish  in  the  same  miserable 
destruction. 

The  argument  in  favour  of  the  gospel,  from  the  superior 
dignity  of  the  Revealer,  is  frequently  applied  by  the  apostle  in 
this  epistle.  In  the  words  immediately  before  my  text,  he  uses 
it  to  enforce  the  duty  of  embracing  the  gospel.  If  the  ivord 
spoken  by  angels  was  steadfast,  saith  he,  and  every  transgression 
and  disobedience  received  a  just  recompense  of  reward,  how  shall 
we  escape  ifioe  neglect  so  great  salvation,  which  at  the  first  began 


NEGLECT    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  307 

to  be  spoken  by  the  Lord,  In  the  tenth  chapter  he  presses  the 
same  argument  upon  their  attention  in  these  words — lie  that 
despised  JMoses^  Law,  died  without  mercy  :  of  how  much  sorer 
punishment,  suppose  ye,  shall  he  he  thought  u'orthy,  xcho  hath 
trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of  God  ?  And  enforces  it  in  the 
twelfth  chapter  by  a  very  solemn  exhortation. — See  that  ye 
refuse  not  Hint  that  speaketh ;  for  if  they  escaped  not  who  refused 
Him  that  spake  on  earth,  much  more  shall  not  loe  escape  if  we  turn 
away  from  Him  that  speaketh  from  heaven. 

Lastly,  the  strength  and  clearness  of  the  evidence,  and  the 
number  and  greatness  of  the  proofs  made  use  of  to  assure  men 
of  the  truth  and  certainty  of  the  gospel,  is  the  highest  aggrava- 
tion of  the  guilt  of  those  who  neglect  or  disobey  it. 

The  gospel  began  to  be  spoken  by  the  Lord,  and  ivas  after- 
loards  confirmed  to  us  by  them  that  heard  him.  God  also  beax- 
ing  them  witness  both  with  signs  and  wonders,  and  with  divers 
miracles  and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  according  to  his  own  ivill. 

The  stronger  the  evidence  of  any  truth  be,  the  more  inex- 
cusable is  the  opposition  made  to  It.  And  the  highest  aggrava- 
tion of  this  crime  is,  to  continue  to  oppose  a  truth  after  the  best 
and  greatest  evidence  has  been  given  of  it  that  the  nature  of  the 
thing  was  capable  of.  In  such  a  case,  opposition  can  proceed 
from  nothing  but  either  wilful  obstinacy  and  jjerverseness,  or 
the  love  of  sin  in  some  of  its  many  shapes. 

Now  this  is  plainly  the  case  of  those  who  reject  the  gospel 
after  the  undeniable  evidences  which  have  been  given  of  its 
truth.  Their  rejecting  it  cannot  proceed  from  want  of  sufficient 
conviction,  but  only  from  a  love  of  vice,  and  a  resolution  not  to 
be  reformed,  which  is  a  height  of  wickedness  from  which  the 
hope,  even,  of  excuse  is  cut  off,  and  which,  the  only  remedy 
being  rejected,  there  is  no  means  of  amending.  When  clear 
light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  still  continue  their  works 
of  darkness,  then  it  becomes  evident  that  their  wickedness  does 
not  proceed  from  ignorance  and  want  of  instruction,  but  from 
choice.  They  love  darkness  rather  than  light,  and  stand  in  open 
defiance  of  God  and  his  supreme  authority.  This  is  what  our 
Saviour  says  of  the  Jews,  If  I  had  not  come  and  spoken  unto  them 
they  had  not  had  sin,  but  now  they  have  no  cloak  for  their  sin.     If 


308  NEGLECT  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

/  had  not  done  among  them  the  works  which  no  other  man  did,  they 
had  not  had  sin  ;  hut  now  they  have  both  seen  and  hated  both  me 
and  my  Father.  This  is  the  reason  of  his  declaring  to  the  cities 
of  Judea  that  it  should  be  more  tolerable  for  Sodom  and 
Gomorrha  in  the  day  of  judgment  than  for  them;  because,  if  the 
mighty  works  that  were  done  in  them  had  been  done  in  Sodom.,  it 
would  have  repented  in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  This  is  the  reason 
of  his  declaring  to  those  Pharisees  who  blasphemed  the  Holy 
Spirit,  that  they  should  never  have  forgiveness,  neither  in  this 
world  nor  that  which  is  to  come.  Because  they  resisted  the 
last  and  greatest  means  that  God  would  ever  make  use  of  to 
bring  them  to  repentance  ;  and  not  only  resisted  it,  but  reviled 
it  also.  They  saw  with  their  own  eyes  the  clearest  and  strongest 
proofs  of  the  truth  of  the  gospel  that  could  possibly  be  given, 
and  yet  they  not  only  withstood  the  evidence  of  those  mighty 
works,  but  ascribed  them,  moreover,  to  the  agency  of  the  devil. 
Their  crime  was  singular  and  unexampled,  and  their  con- 
demnation was  likewise  singular.  But  all  others,  also,  who 
reject  the  gospel  are,  in  proportion  to  the  greatness  of  the 
evidence  they  resist,  and  according  to  the  degree  of  their 
obstinacy  and  wickedness  in  so  doing,  in  like  manner  inex- 
cusable, and  despisers  of  Him  that  speaketh  from  heaven. 

Upon  these  commanding,  just,  and  reasonable  grounds,  rests 
the  claim  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  to  ready  and  hearty  reception 
from  all  mankind,  and  when  in  addition  to  this,  it  is  their  highest 
interest  to  embrace  it  joyfully  and  thankfully,  to  seek  its  grace, 
and  to  occupy  themselves  diligently  in  finding  the  pearl  of  great 
price,  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  excuse  for  indifference,  even, 
to  its  lively  hope.  Thousands,  however,  live  in  the  midst  of  its 
light,  its  privileges,  its  blessings — thousands  look  to  it  in  some 
degree  for  hope  as  to  hereafter,  who  are  yet  perfect  strangers  to 
any  act  or  endeavour  on  their  part,  to  obtain  its  grace,  and 
experience  its  transforming  power.  How,  then,  shall  they 
escape  ] 

It  is  but  seldom,  my  friends,  that  we  hear  of  an  open  and 
acknowledged  rejecter  of  the  gospel;  but  we  have  in  abundance 
the  unhappy  experience  of  a  carelessness  and  neglect  of  its 
exhortations,  encouragement,  and  commands,  which  amount  to 


NEGLECT  OF  THE  GOSPEL.  309 

the  same  thing  in  fact,  and  must  prove  the  same  in  the  event  to 
those  who  continue  thus.  How  sliall  they  who  are  thus  care- 
less and  indiU'crent  as  to  God  and  their  own  souls — how  shall 
they  escape  1  Would  to  God  that  those  now  before  me  in  this 
little  assembly,  who  have  no  interest  in  the  gospel  by  any  per- 
sonal submission  to  the  law  of  Christ  ;  who  have  never, by  any 
one  act  of  their  lives,  unfurled  the  banner  of  the  cross  over 
them,  and  said  to  the  world,  I  am  on  the  Lord's  side  ;  who 
have  no  claim  on  the  mercy  of  God,  beyond  baptismal  engage- 
ments, which  they  have  repeatedly  trodden  under  foot ;  who 
know  nothing  of  repentance  and  contrition  for  their  accumu- 
lated sin  in  this  respect,  beyond  the  feeble  intention  of  future 
amendment ;  who  are  engaged  with  the  world,  or  fluttering 
down  the  stream  of  sin  and  vanity,  of  thoughtlessness  and 
unconcern. — Would  to  God  they  could  be  prevailed  upon 
to  ask  their  souls  this  question,  while  there  is  yet,  through  the 
goodness  of  God,  time,  opportunity,  and  means  to  escape.  For 
what  is  thy  life,  my  fellow  sinner  ]  A  certainty  or  an  uncer- 
tainty 1  And  what  would  be  your  condition,  neglecters  of  this 
great  salvation,  should  God  this  night  require  your  souls  1  How 
would  you  appear '?  What  could  you  answer  1  Oh  !  it  will  be  a 
heart-sinking  sound  to  hear  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  say,  /  nei-er 
knew  you.  And  as  God  is  true,  it  must  and  will  be  said  to  every 
soul  under  the  gospel  who  denies  the  Lord  that  bought  him,  by 
refusing  himself  to  the  profession  and  practice  of  his  religion. — 
Whosoever  shall  confess  me  before  men  hhmoill  I  also  confess  before 
my  Father  toldch  is  in  heaven,  but  whosoever  shall  deny  me 
before  men,  him  icill  I  also  deny  before  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven.  Why  stand  ye  then  here  all  the  day  idle  1  Hath  no 
man  hired  youl  God  is  my  witness  that  1  have  offered  you 
the  work  and  the  wages  of  the  gospel,  but  the  world  has  the 
greater  attraction,  and  what  can  the  world  do  for  your  souls  but 
sink  them  into  deeper,  and  deeper,  and  deeper  perdition?  What 
can  it  plead  for  you  in  the  day  of  account,  when  the  reward  of 
your  hands  shall  be  given  you,  when  you  shall  eat  the  fruit  of  your 
doings  for  ever  ]  Has  the  world  any  atonement  for  sin,  any 
intercession  for  sinners,  to  present  unto  God  in  your  behalf? 
If  it  has  not,  and  you  feel  at  this  moment  that  it  will  not  answer 


310  NEGLECT    OF    THE    GOSPEX. 

in  that  awful  day,  O  be  persuaded  to  carry  your  thoughts 
onward  till  you  learn  where  only  mercy  is,  where  it  may  be 
sought  and  can  be  found  even  now — and  then  ask  yourselves, 
under  the  solemn  certainty  of  death  and  judgment,  How  shall 
we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation  ? 

Now,  to  Him  who  loved  us  and  gave  his  only  begotten  Son 
to  die  for  us,  to  Him  who  redeemed  us  to  God  and  washed 
us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  to  Him  who  sanctifieth 
all  the  elect  people  of  God — to  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost> 
be  glory,  and  praise,  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen. 


SERMON  XXVII. 


THE    DANGER    OF    DELAYED    REPENTANCE. 


Hebrews  xii.  16,   17. 

*'  Lest  there  be  any  fornicator,  or  profane  person,  as  Esau,  who  for  one  morsel  of 
meat  sold  his  birthright ;  for  ye  know  how  that  atlerward,  when  he  would  have 
inherited  the  blessing,  he  was  rejected  ;  for  lie  found  no  place  of  repentance, 
though  he  sought  it  carefully  with  tears." 

Truly  is  it  said,  my  brethren,  of  God's  ancient  people,  the 
-children  of  Israel,  that  all  these  things  happened  unto  them  for 
ensamples,  and  they  are  ivrittenfor  our  admonition  upon  whom  the 
ends  of  the  world  are  come ;  and  whether  we  consider  them  nation- 
ally or  individually — whether  we  look  for  general  or  particular 
examples — whether  we  need  warning  against  the  ways  of  wick- 
edness, or  encouragement  in  the  practice  of  righteousness,  the 
record  of  their  history  in  the  inspired  volume,  and  the  conse- 
quences which  followed  their  conduct  under  the  government  of 
a  merciful,  but  wise,  holy,  and  just  God,  is  full  of  instruction  to 
us,  and  amply  deserves  the  high  character  given  of  it  by  St.  Paul 
to  Timothy — That  it  is  able  to  make  us  wise  unto  salvation  through 
faith  which  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  Of  this  ability  many  proofs 
might  be  adduced,  both  of  a  general  and  special  nature,  in  the 
just  application  of  which  to  ourselves  we  might  reap  the  rich 
harvest  of  that  wisdom  which  cometh  down  from  above,  whose 
heavenly  fruit  is  faith  in  God  and  elevation  of  the  soul  above  the 
deceits  of  sin  and  the  vanities  of  the  world,  but  none,  perhaps, 
more  pregnant  with  warning  and  instruction,  because  more 
parallel  with  the  present  conduct  of  a  careless  and  sinful  genera- 
tion, than  that  set  forth  in  my  text. 

In  discoursing  upon  this  subject,  therefore,  it  shall  be  my 
part  to  point  out  to  you  the  close  application  of  Esau's  conduct 
to  that  of  every  careless,  and,  therefore,  contemptuous  neglecter 
of  the  gospel,  in  the  hope  that  it  will  be  your  part  seriously  to 
count  the  cost  and  look  to  the  end,  as  set  forth  in  bis  fate,  that 


312       THE  DANGER  OF  DELAYED  REPENTANCE. 

ye  may  escape  that  final  and  everlasting  rejection  from  aheavenly 
inheritance,  of  which  his  history  is  a  most  lively  representation. 

Lest  there  be  any  fornicator  or  profane  person,  as  Esau,  who  for 
one  morsel  of  meat  sold  his  birthright ;  for  ye  know  how  that  after- 
ward, when  he  would  have  inherited  the  blessing,  he  ivas  rejected  ; 
for  he  found  no  place  of  repentance,  though  he  sought  it  carefully 
icith  tears. 

From  these  words  we  may  draw  the  following  heads  of  prac- 
tical meditation  and  improvement. 

First,  that  it  is  a  true  description  of  all  sinners,  that  for  one 
morsel  of  meat  they  sell  their  birthright. 

Secondly,  that  repentance  of  some  kind  must,  of  necessity, 
be  the  consequence  of  sin. 

Thirdly  and  lastly,  that  repentance  maybe  delayed  and 
put  off  until  it  will  be  too  late  to  be  accepted. 

I.  First,  it  is  a  true  description  of  all  sinners,  that  for  one 
morsel  of  meat  they  sell  their  birthright. 

By  the  undertaking  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  a  lost 
world,  a  reconciled  God,  pardon  of  sin,  and  sanctifying  grace 
to  the  attainment  of  eternal  life,  are  procured  and  freely  offered 
to  all  who  seek  for  them  through  the  atonement  made  to  the 
Almighty  Father  of  the  universe,  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross. 
Of  these  glad  tidings  to  a  world  of  condemned  sinners  the  gospel 
is  the  authentic  proclamation,  calling  upon  all  men  every  where 
to  repent  and  believe,  to  obey  and  be  saved — giving  them  the 
fullest  assurance  of  another  state  of  being,  by  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  from  the  dead,  and  thereby  bringing  life  and  immor- 
tality to  light,  with  the  awful  sanctions  which  await  them  under 
the  righteous  judgment  of  a  pure  and  holy  God  upon  the  deeds 
done  in  this  body.  This  state  of  reconciliation,  hope,  and  help 
for  sinful  creatures,  purchased  for  them  by  the  death  of  Christ, 
together  with  the  reward  which  is  promised  to  the  due  improve- 
ment of  it,  is  styled  in  Scripture  the  birthright  or  inheritance  of 
the  saints,  and  it  is  thus  described  on  various  accounts,  but  all 
referring  to  the  procuring  cause  and  to  the  qualifications  for  it. 
Thus  in  the  most  extended  sense  in  which  the  expression  can 
be  taken  as  embracing  the  seed  of  Adam,  the  advantages  spe- 
cially revealed  to  all  under  the  gospel,  are,  nevertheless,  securely 


THE    DANGER    OF    DELAYED    REPENTANCE.  S13 

laid  up  for  those  to  whom  the  gospel  has  not  come,  who,  accord- 
ing to  the  light  of  their  respective  dispensations,  have  feared  Goo 
and  icroxi^ht  righteousness.     For,   as  in  the  inscrutable  counsel 
and  foresight  of  the  Almighty  Father  of  the  universe,  provision 
was  made  for  the  recovery  of  fallen  man  through  the  Son  of 
God,  even  before  his   creation,  all  who  are  born  into  the  world 
are,  in  different  degrees,   the  heirs  of  these  mighty  benefits. 
Hence  Christ   is  called  in  Scripture,  the  Lamb  slain  from  the 
foundation  of  the  icorld ;  and  the  revelation  of  this  mysterv  at 
sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  by  the  prophets,  and  finally 
and  fully  by  the  gospel,  is  by  St.  Paul,  and  for  this  reason, 
styled  God's  own   purpose  and  grace,  which  uas  given  us  in 
Christ  Jesus  before  the  world  began,   and  the  eternal  purpose 
which  he  purposed  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.     It  is,  therefore 
with  the  utmost  propriety  called  a  birthright  or  inheritable  pro- 
perty.   For  God  xvas  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself 
and  Jesus  Christ  by  the  grace  of  God  tasted  death  for  every 
man.  Nor  are  any  debarred  from  this  benefit  who  do  not  exclude 
themselves  by  personal  sin  and  the  neglect  of  timely  repentance. 
In  a  more  restricted  though  still  general  sense,  the  benefits 
and  advantages  of  the  gospel  dispensation  are  the  birthright  of 
all  under  its  joyful  sound ;  and  the  reward  of  that  eternal  life, 
which  is  therein  promised  to  faith  and  obedience,  is  the  incor- 
ruptible inheritance  to  which  they  are  called.     At  their  very 
entrance  into  life  as  it  were,  this  general  claim  to  the  favour  and 
mercy  of  God  through  Christ  is   appropriated  in  the  sacra- 
ment of  baptism,  wherein  they  are  made  "  members  of  Christ, 
children  of  God,  and  inheritors  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  and 
as  such  are   registered  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life,  as  heirs  of 
God  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ — a  sealed  title  to  heavenly  glory, 
which  nothing  can  deprive  them  of  but  a  life  of  sin  and  wicked- 
ness impenitently  persisted  in. 

In  a  still  more  restricted  and  higher  sense,  (and  to  which  all 
previous  gospel  advantages,  when  duly  improved,  surely  bring 
us,)  this  inheritance  is  the  birthright  of  those  who  to  natural 
birth  and  baptismal  regeneration  have  added  repentance 
towards  God,  (for  there  is  no  man  that  liveth  and  sinneth  not,) 
and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  with  holiness;  thus 
Vol.  II.— 40 


314  THE    DANGER    OF    DELAyED    llEPENTANCB- 

making  their  calling  and  election  sure,  or  as  St.  John  expresses 
it  in  his  gospel,  as  many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power, 
(that  is,  light  or  privilege,)  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to 
them  that  believe  on  his  name,  which  were  born  not  of  blood,  nor  of 
the  loill  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  o/God. 

Such,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  according  to  the  Scriptures, 
being  the  extent  and  efficacy  of  the  redemption  that  is  in  Christ 
Jesus,  there  can  be  no  question  of  the  high  duty  and  command- 
ing obligation  all  present  are  under,  to  work  out  their  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling,  and  secure  their  title  to  this  heavenly 
inheritance  by  such  a  conversation  in  life  as  becometh  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  For  the  gospel,  with  all  its  high,  holy,  and 
heavenly  hopes,  with  all  its  encouraging  and  effectual  helps, 
and  with  all  its  heart-stirring  sanctions,  is  your  birthright,  my 
hearers  ;  but  we  are  instructed  by  the  text,  that  this  invaluable 
patrimony  may  be  alienated,  sold,  and  bartered  away  for  a 
worthless  consideration,  and  we  learn  from  woful  experience 
that  there  are,  even  now,  many  Esaus. 

The  counterpart  of  this  character,  then,  here  set  forth  for 
our  warning,  is  found  in  all  profligate,  vicious,  and  wicked  men  ; 
for  one  morsel  of  meat  they  sell  their  birthright ;  for  a  present 
inconsiderable  trifle  they  part  with  a  most  valuable  estate  in 
reversion  ;  for  the  momentary  pleasures  of  sin  in  this  transitory 
and  uncertain  world,  they  exchange  their  heavenly  and  eternal 
portion  in  the  city  of  the  living  God.  Being  shown  the  field 
containing  the  pearl  of  great  price,  according  to  our  Saviour's 
figure  in  the  parable,  instead  of  selling  all  that  they  possess  in 
order  to  purchase  it,  they  madly  sell  the  inestimable  pearl 
purchased  for  them  by  the  Son  of  God,  for  that  which  profit- 
eth  not. 

The  votaries  of  the  world,  also,  who  with  more  of  decency 
but  with  equal  folly  lay  themselves  out  for  its  riches  and  its. 
honours,  resemble  Esau  in  the  poor  and  perishing  price  for 
which  they  sell  their  birthright. 

The  lovers  of  pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God  likewise 
realize  the  same  ruinous  self-deception,  in  bartering  away  an 
unfading  inheritance  for  what,  literally,  perishes  in  the  using — the 


THE  DANGER  OF  DELAYED  REPENTANCE.      315 

mere  gratifications  of  sense  or  the  transient  enjoyments  of  pride 
and  vanity. 

But  more  exactly  alike,  and,  alas  !  more  frequent  than  the 
others,  is  the  numerous  class  of  careless  neglecters  of  the  gospel, 
of  whom  nothing  openly  flagitious  and  profligate  can  be  said, 
on  the  contrary,  outward  respect  is  shown  by  many  of  them  for 
religion,  and  the  morality  of  their  lives  is  even  conspicuous  ;  yet 
in  the  very  sense  in  which  Esau  is  represented  as  despising  his 
birthright  do  they  despise  theirs.  For  neglect  of  the  gospel  can 
only  proceed  from  the  preference  of  something  opposite  to  it, 
or  from  profane  contempt  of  its  promises  and  threatenings. 
On  such  an  interest  as  that  of  being  delivered  from  the  curse  of 
God  and  everlasting  misery,  and  the  obtaining  the  favour  of  the 
Almighty  and  endless  felicity,  not  to  be  engaged  is  to  be  oppos- 
ed, to  be  neutral,  even,  is  to  be  counted  an  enemy — He  that  is 
not  for  me  is  against  me,  saith  the  Son  of  God.  Hence,  and  still 
more  from  the  reason  of  the  thing,  all  under  the  light  of  the 
gospel,  particularly  all  baptized  persons,  who  are  careless  and 
negligent  on  this  duty,  who  sit  loose  to  any  profession  of  reli- 
gion, and  disregard  the  solemn  engagements  of  the  baptismal 
covenant,  are  in  fact  guilty  of  the  sin  of  despising  their  birth- 
right, and  stand  in  the  same  danger,  and  are  liable  to  incur  the 
same  rejection  denounced  against  Esau. 

Let  me  beseech  you,  therefore,  and  all  other  impenitent  sin- 
ners, to  consider,  with  the  seriousness  it  deserves,  this  awakening 
passage  of  Scripture — to  look  to  those  other  Scripture  histories, 
which,  under  various  similitudes,  set  forth  for  our  warning  and 
instruction  the  dangerous  consequences  of  trifling  with  the 
appointments  of  God  for  our  salvation,  and  thence  learn  that 
the  case  of  Esau  is  not  a  solitary  instance  of  profanely  despising 
the  advantages  of  birth,  condition,  and  opportunity.  From 
Adam  forward,  through  the  whole  Scripture,  what  do  the 
various  examples  of  disobedience  and  contempt  of  God  therein 
given  say  to  sinners  of  every  class  ?  For  one  forbidden  delight 
Adam  forfeited  both  that  and  all  other  delights  ;  for  the  gratifi- 
cation of  one  impatient  appetite  Esau  parted  with  his  right  as 
the  first  born,  with  all  the  high  privileges  both  of  a  temporal  and 
spiritual  nature  which  were  annexed  to  his  birth,  and  of  which 


316       THE  DANGER  OF  DELAYED  REPENTANCE, 

he  could  not  be  deprived  but  by  his  own  act.  For  a  mess  of 
pottage,  however,  for  one  morsel  of  meat  he  bartered  thein 
away ;  and  the  consideration  of  his  case,  and  of  the  many  others 
of  a  like  kind  recorded  for  our  learning,  speaks  to  every  impeni- 
tent, careless,  delaying  sinner  under  the  gospel  in  the  words  of 
Nathan  to  David — Thou  art  the  man.  Thou  art  the  Adam,  thou 
art  the  Esau,  who,  for  a  transient,  perishing  gratification  of 
brute-like  appetite,  art  selling  thy  birthright  to  an  everlasting 
and  incorruptible  inheritance  of  glory ;  thou  art  the  man 
who,  for  the  momentary  enjoyments  of  sin,  for  the  brutal 
pleasures  of  debauchery,  for  the  unprofitable  gains  of  fraud, 
extortion,  and  usury,  and  the  fleeting  distinctions  of  worldly 
honour,  art  bartering  away  the  solid  and  enduring  pleasures  and 
honours  which  are  at  the  right  hand  of  God  for  evermore. 

But,  my  sin-deceived  brothers  and  sisters,  what  are  your  gains 
worth,  even  when  obtained  1  How  long  will  they  continue  1 
Alas !  what  is  our  life  at  most  but  as  a  flower  of  the  grass,  that 
speedily  fadeth,  or  as  a  thin  vapour,  a  morning  mist,  that  pass- 
eth  away  and  cometh  not  again  1  Where  are  noAv  the  many 
whom  yourselves  have  seen  and  heard  of,  who  chased  these 
shadows  of  better  things  but  forgot  the  substance,  where  are 
they  with  their  contempt  of  the  gospel,  and  dissolute  pleasures, 
and  unrighteous  gains,  and  air-built,  earthly  honours  ]  Have 
these  gone  with  them  into  the  separate  state  1  Do  they  now 
enjoy  them  1  Alas  !  for  the  bitter  exchange,  the  unprofitable 
barter,  but  it  cannot  be  recalled.  Yes,  my  dear  hearers,  and 
unless  speedy  repentance  deliver  you  from  the  snare  soon,  and 
how  soon  you  know  not,  you  will  have  to  join  them  in  saying, 
with  anguish  of  soul,  All  those  things  are  passed  away  as  a 
shadow  and  as  a  post  that  hasted  by,  and  as  a  ship  that  passeth 
over  the  waves  of  the  water,  which,  when  it  is  gone  by,  the 
trace  thereof  cannot  be  found,  or  as  when  a  bird  has  flown 
through  the  air,  there  is  no  token  of  her  way  to  be  found,  even 
so  we  in  like  manner,  as  soon  as  we  were  born,  began  to  draw 
to  our  end,  and,  having  no  sign  of  virtue  to  show,  are  con- 
sumed in  our  own  wickedness. 

Lay  to  heart,  then,  I  beseech  you,  my  friends,  the  warning 
herein  given,  and  bear  in  mind,  that  the  comparison  here  made 


THE  DANGER  OP  DELAYED  REPENTANCE.      317 

by  the  apostle  between  the  behaviour  of  Esau  and  other  profane 
persons,  though  it  may  not  agree  with  the  particulars  of  their 
sin,  is,  nevertheless,  exact  in  the  general  notion  of  their  folly, 
and  is  by  him  applied  as  a  warning  to  Christians. 

II.  Secondly,  we  are  instructed  from  the  text  that  repentance 
of  some  kind  must  of  necessity  be  the  consequence  of  sin. 
Esau  sought  a  place  of  repentance,  and  he  sought  it  carefully, 
with   tears. 

All  the  pleasures  of  sin  are  vanity  and  disappointment.  They 

are  contrary  to  nature,  contrary  to  reason,  contrary  to  the  will 

and   appointment  of    God.     Sooner   or  later,   therefore,  my 

hearers,  the  true  nature  of  things  will  discover  itself,  and  all 

false  colours  will  be  wiped  off.      Whenever  this  is  the  case, 

repentance  succeeds,    necessarily   and  of  course.     But  much 

depends  upon  the  time  and  the  nature  of  the  repentance  to 

which  we  are  brought,  for  there  is  a  sorrow  of  the   world,  as 

well  as  a  godly  sorrow,  which  characterizes  repentance.     If  in 

early  life  sinners  are  brought,  by  the  grace  of  God  working  in 

them,  through  serious  reflection,  to  discover  the  heinous  and 

destructive  nature  of  sin,  and  to  resolve  against  it,  then  their 

repentance  becomes   effectual ;  it  is  a  godly  sorrow  for  sin, 

which  brings  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance   in  reformed  and 

amended  life.     But  if  those  awakenings  and  convictions  of  the 

Holy  Spirit,  which  all  under  the  gospel  experience,  are  resisted 

and  stifled,   and  the  conscience  becomes  seared  and  hardened 

through  the  deceitfulness  of  sin;  yet,  finally,  when  their  end  draws 

near,  when  they  would  inherit  the  blessing  but  fear  that  they 

have  forfeited  their  title  to  it,  then  the  very  worst  of  men  must 

be  brought  to  repentance.     But  this  is  a  repentance  which  can 

avail  them  nothing,  because  it  is  not  a  virtue  but  a  passion  only, 

necessary  and  unavoidable,  and  a  part  of  their  punishment.      It 

springs  not  from  any  godly  sorrow  and  true  contrition   of  heart 

for  their  sins,  as  against  God,  but  from  the  passionate  fear  of  the 

consequences  of  their  sins   to  themselves,  which  they  realize 

when  it  is  too  late,  and  dread  to  encounter. 

Yet  such  will  be  the  fate,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  of  every 
careless,  delaying  Esau,  who  makes  light  of  the  promises  and 
threatenings  of  the  gospel,  who  turns  a  deaf  ear  to  the  warnings 


318       THE  DANGER  OF  DELAYED  REPENTANCE. 

of  God's  word  and  the  voice  of  his  own  conscience,  who 
receives  the  grace  of  God  in  vain,  and,  by  putting  off  till  to- 
morrow the  care  of  his  soul,  has  to  meet  the  righteous  judg- 
ment of  God  in  the  awful  condition  described  by  the  author  of 
the  book  of  Wisdom — when  they  cast  up  the  account  of  their 
sins  they  shall  come  with  fear,  and  their  own  iniquities  shall  con- 
vince them  to  their  face  ;  and  they,  repenting  and  groaning  for 
anguish  of  spirit,  shall  say  within  themselves.  We  have  erred 
from  the  way  of  truth,  and  the  light  of  righteousness  hath  not 
shined  unto  us.  For  the  hope  of  the  ungodly  is  like  dust,  that 
is  blown  away  with  the  wind  ;  like  a  thin  froth,  that  is  driven 
away  with  the  storm  ;  like  as  the  smoke,  which  is  dispersed  here 
and  there  with  a  tempest,  and  passeth  away  as  the  remembrance 
of  a  guest  that  tarrieth  but  a  day. 

Very  awful  and  very  affecting  indeed,  my  brethren,  are  the 
descriptions  given  us  of  the  state  of  the  ungodly  and  impenitent, 
when  surprised  by  death  and  summoned  to  judgment ;  but  none 
more  so,  than  that  contained  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  book  of 
Proverbs — Because  I  have  called,  and  ye  refused  ;  I  have  stretched 
out  my  hand,  and  no  man  regarded  ;  hut  ye  have  set  at  nought  all 
my  counsel,  and  would  none  of  my  reproof;  I  also  will  laugh  at  your 
calamity  ;  I  will  mock  when  your  fear  cometh,  when  your  fear 
Cometh  as  desolation,  and  your  destruction  cometh  as  a  whirlwind  ; 
when  distress  and  anguish  cometh  upon  you.  Then  shall  they  call 
upon  me,  but  I  will  not  anstver  ;  they  shall  seek  me  early,  but  they 
shall  not  find  me ;  for  that  they  hated  knowledge,  and  did  not 
choose  the  fear  of  the  Lord.  They  would  none  of  my  counsel ; 
they  despised  all  my  reproof  Therefore  shall  they  eat  of  the  fruit 
of  their  own  way,  and  be  filled  icith  their  own  devices. 

Alas  !  my  dear  hearers,  there  is  a  time  when  God  will  be  no 
longer  entreated  ;  when  even  the  intercession  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  friend  of  sinners,  will  no  more  be  put  forth  for  them  ;  but 
as  they  have  obstinately  preferred  sin  to  God,  so  shall  sin  and 
an  awakened  conscience  be  their  companions  and  tormentors 
for  ever,  in  the  misery  and  despair  of  everlasting  burnings.  Let 
every  impenitent  sinner,  therefore,  consider  seriously  the  danger 
of  his  condition — For,  in  the 

III.  Third  and  last  place,  we  learn  from  the  text  that  repent- 


THE  DANGER  OF  DELAYED  REPENTANCE.       319 

ance  may  be  put  off  and  delayed,  until  it  will  be  too  late  to  be 
accepted.  Ye  know  that  afterward,  lohen  he  would  have  inherited 
the  blessing,  he  was  rejected ;  for  he  found  no  place  of  repentance^ 
though  he  sought  it  carefullij,  loith  tears. 

What  hope,  then,  for  those  who  never  shed  a  tear  over  their 
sins,  as  offences  against  God,  in  their  lives ;  who  have  never 
once  considered  the  blessing  offered  them  in  the  gospel,  or  put 
forth  an  effort  to  obtain  it ;  who  give  the  prime  of  their  days, 
their  strength  and  manhood,  to  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil ; 
and  at  the  most,  intend  to  give  only  the  dregs  of  life  to  their 
Creator  and  Saviour  ]  Oh  !  the  folly  of  a  delayed,  perhaps  a 
death-bed,  repentance.  Oh  !  the  unspeakable  danger  of  a 
sudden  death — cut  off  with  the  morsel  between  his  teeth,  every 
sin  ripe,  and  even  bursting  to  judgment. 

As  reason  must  condemn  the  folly  of  delay  on  such  an 
unspeakable  interest  as  eternity,  so  does  Scripture  warn  us  that 
we  may  delay  too  long.  My  fellow  sinner,  thy  day  of  grace  is 
limited — there  is  a  point  beyond  which  thou  mayest  knock  at 
the  door  of  mprcy  in  vain.  The  foolish  virgins  found  it  so — 
the  city  of  Jerusalem  found  it  so — Esau  found  it  so.  The 
foolish  virgins  were  unprovided  when  notice  was  given  that  the 
bridegroom  was  near.  They  went  in  haste  to  buy  oil  for  their 
lamps,  but  the  bridegroom  passed  on — And  they  that  were  ready 
went  in  with  him  to  the  marriage,  and  the  door  was  shut.  After- 
wards these  same  persons  came  and  knocked  at  the  door,  but 
there  was  no  admittance  ;  and  thus  our  blessed  Lord  applies  the 
warning — When  once  the  master  of  the  house  is  risen  up,  and  hath 
shut  to  the  door,  and  ye  begin  to  stand  without,  and  to  knock  at  the 
door,  saying,  Lord,  Lord,  open  unto  us ;  he  shall  answer  and  say 
unto  you,  I  knoiv  you  not,  whence  you  are. 

The  nation  of  the  Jews  also,  and  particularly  the  city  o^ 
Jerusalem,  had  repeated  warnings  to  repent  and  escape  the 
judgments  denounced  against  them,  but  they  made  light  of 
them  and  derided  the  mercy  that  was  in  store  for  them,  so 
that  even  their  Messiah  himself  pronounced  them  shut  up  in 
judicial  blindness  and  hardness  of  heart.  And  when  he  toas  come 
near  he  beheld  the  city  and  wept  over  it,  saying.  If  thou  hadst 
known,  even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy  day,  the  things  which  belong 


320       THE  DANGER  OF  DELAYED  REPENTANCE. 

to  thy  peace ;  hut  noio  they  are  hid  from  thine  eyes,  because 
thou  knewest  not  the  time  of  thy  visitation.  And  of  Esau  we 
read  in  the  text,  that  he  found  no  place  of  repentance  though 
he  sought  it  carefully  with  tears.  Esau,  when  he  would  have 
inherited  the  blessing,  was  rejected,  notwithstanding  his  repent- 
ance and  his  tears,  and  this  example  is  urged  by  the  apostle 
upon  Christians,  as  a  warning  or  admonition  that  they  amend 
their  lives  while  there  is  yet  time  and  means  to  perform 
their  duty,  lest  afterwards,  when  they  shall  desire  to  inherit  the 
blessing,  (at  the  day  of  judgment  certainly,  upon  their  death-bed 
most  probably,)  their  repentance  and  their  tears  both  prove 
unavailing. 

And  let  no  man  make  his  escape  from  the  counsel  and  the 
warning  of  this  example,  by  resorting  to  the  miserable  perversion 
of  all  religion.  That  Esau  being  in  the  number  of  those  who  are 
reprobated  by  God's  eternal  decree,  and  being  consequently  a 
castaway  from  all  hope  of  favour  and  acceptance  on  any  terms, 
his  case  cannot  be  brought  into  general  application.  For 
St.  Paul,  I  presume,  knew  better  than  the  inventors  of  such 
doctrine  how  the  case  stood,  and  he  certainly  uses  it  for  general 
edification  ;  besides,  when  it  is  said  of  Esau,  as  it  is  in  the 
text,  that  he  found  no  place  of  repentance  though  he  sought  it 
carefully  with  tears,  it  does  not  signify  that  he  could  not  repent, 
that  the  power  of  repentance  was  withheld  from  him  by  any  act 
of  God  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  text  expressly  says  that  he  did 
repent,  and  earnestly  too  ;  but  the  meaning  plainly  is,  that  his 
repentance  being  too  late,  and  being  only  the  passion  of  repent- 
ance, what  St.  Paul  calls  the  sorrow  of  the  world,  and  not  a 
genuine  amendment  of  the  mind,  a  repentance  coming  upon 
him  at  the  time  when  the  blessing  was  to  be  distributed,  and  not 
when  his  duty  might  have  been  performed  ;  for  that  reason  it 
could  not  be  accepted.  So  likewise,  in  other  places  of  Scrip- 
ture— God's  giving  men  repentance,  or  granting  them  repentance 
unto  life,  does  not  signify  his  causing  them  to  repent,  but  his 
accepting  their  repentance,  through  faith  in  Christ,  or  allowing 
it  to  become  available  for  their  pardon. 

Neither  let  any  be  deterred  from  setting  about  this  essential 
work  from  the  fear  that  it  is  now  too  late  for  him  to  find  accept- 


THE  DANGER  OF  DELATED  REPENTANCE.       321 

ance;  but  rather  let  all  be  most  seriously  moved  to  make  no 
loiig'er  delay,  lest,  indeed,  the  door  be  shut,  and  every  effort  to 
obtain  admittance  prove  in  vain.  This  is  the  true  improvement 
of  tliis  example,  and  uf  what  has  been  said  to  explain  and 
enforce  it.  This  improvement  you  are  all  capable  of  makinjj; 
^nd  may  a  gracious  God,  who  has  provided  for  your  warning 
this  day,  incline  and  enable  you  to  apply  it  to  the  health  and 
comfort  of  your  souls.     Amen. 


Vol.  II.— 41 


SERMON    XXVIII. 


THE    WARNINGS    OF    CONSCIENCE    NOT    TO  BE  NEGLECTED. 


Acts  xxiv.  25. 

"And  as  he  rcasor-.ed  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to  come,  Felix 
trembled,  and  answered,  Go  thy  way  for  this  time ;  when  I  have  a  more  con- 
venient season  I  will  call  for  thee." 

Whatever  the  state  of  our  thoughts  may  be  in  regard  to 
religion,  or  whatever  the  practice  of  our  Hves  as  respects  the 
great  and  universal  standard  of  moral  justice,  there  is  in  every 
man  a  sense  of  retribution  and  accountability  to  the  Supreme 
and  invisible  Governor  of  the  Universe,  which  meets  the  sinful 
propensities  of  our  fallen  nature  with  so  pointed  a  reproof,  as  to 
render  men  inexcusable  in  the  neglect  of  so  faithful  a  monitor. 

Whether  the  power  of  this  principle,  which  we  call  natural 
conscience,  be  in  itself  sufficient  to  guide  tnen  to  that  moral 
rectitude  which  is  their  first  duty  towards  each  other,  may  admit 
of  much  ditFerence  of  opinion.  This  much,  however,  we  are 
wananted  in  saying,  from  the  highest  authority,  that  to  the  mass 
of  njankind,  in  every  age  of  the  world,  it  is  the  standard  by 
which  the  lighteous  Judge  of  all  the  earth  will  regulate  his 
dealings  in  the  great  day  of  eternity — For  those  ichn  have  not 
the  laic  are  a  law  unto  themselves,  which  show  the  work  of  the  law 
written  in  their  hearts  ;  their  conscience  also  hearing  witness,  and 
their  thoughts  the  mean  xohile  accusing  or  else  excusing  one  another. 
Upon  this  piinciple  the  apostle  lays  it  down  as  the  und  )ubted 
doctrine  of  revelation,  that  as  many  as  have  sinned  ivithout  law 
shall  also  perish  ivithout  tht  laiv,  and  as  many  as  have  sinned  in 
the  law  shall  be  judged  by  the  law. 

However,  therefore,  we  may  be  disposed  to  settle  the  question 
as  to  the  power  of  natural  conscience,  and  to  consider  it,  as 
some  do,  as  sufficient  of  itself,  without  the  help  of  revelation, 
to  bring  men  to  that  state  of  moral  perfection  which  is  required 


THE    WARNINGS    OF    CONSCIENCE,  &:c.  323 

of  them  by  their  Maker,  and  is  essential  to  their  peace  and 
happiness  bo'h  here  and  hereafter,  yet  in  this  wfi  must  a!l 
agree,  that  such  is  the  depravity  and  prrverseness  of  human 
nature,  that  som<'thing  more  powerful  than  the  mere  conscience 
of  right  and  wrong — something  tnore  quickening  than  the  mere 
knowledge  of  a  judgment  to  come,  is  essential  to  give  to  con- 
science and  revelation  united  their  proper  effect.  Of  this  our 
Own  experience  might  satisfy  us,  my  brethren.  We  are  not 
only  furnished,  in  common  with  the  Heathen,  with  the  work  of 
the  law  written  in  our  hearts,  but  with  the  full  and  clear 
discovery  of  God's  pure  and  perfect  law.  We  have  not  only, 
in  common  with  the  great  body  of  mankind,  a  confused  appre- 
hension of  a  future  judgment,  but  the  explicit  knowledge  of  the 
rewards  and  punishments  of  eternity.  We  have  not  only  the 
inward  motions  and  checks  of  natural  conscience  and  enlight- 
ened reason,  but  the  convincing  power  of  God's  Holy  Spirit 
speaking  within  us.  And  yet  what  multitudes  like  Felix,  yea, 
even  more  hardened  than  that  poor  Heathen,  for  we  read  that 
he  trembled  under  the  convincing  power  of  St.  Paul's  reason- 
ing— what  thousands  in  this  Christian  land  hear  continually  of 
death  and  judgment,  of  heaven  and  hell,  without  being  moved 
at  all,  except,  perhaps,  to  scoff  at  them  either  by  speech  or 
conduct,  oftenti.nes  by  both  ;  while,  of  the  few  who  occasionally 
manifest  some  symptoms  of  concern,  the  Roman  governor  is  a 
faithful  copy,  in  that  procrastinating  temper  which  risks  doing 
despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace,  by  putting  off  till  to-morrow  the 
convictions  of  to-day. 

To  show  you  the  great  and  increasing  danger  of  thus  trifling 
•with  youi'  most  serious  concern,  I  shall  follow  the  example  of 
the  apostle,  and  reason  with  you,  in  the 

First  place,  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to 
come.     I  shall 

Next  endeavour  to  point  out  the  guilt  and  folly  of  neglecting 
the  warnings  of  your  conscience,  and  the  impressions  made  on 
your  n\inds  by  the  word  of  God,  whether  preached  or  read  ; 
and,  then. 

Conclude  with  an  application  of  the  whole. 

And  as  he  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment 


324  THE    WARNINGS    OP    CONSCIENCE 

to  come,  Felix  trembled,  and  answered,  Go  thy  way  for  this  time  / 
when  I  havQM  more  convenient  season  I  will  call  for  thee. 

I.  That  what  I  may  have  to  say  on  the  first  head  may  be  the 
more  impressive,  I  shall  preface  it  b}"^  an  explanation  of  the 
points  which  the  apostle  pressed  upon  Felix,  to  wit :  righteous- 
ness, temperance,  and  a  judgment  to  come.  These  are  alike  essen- 
tial, though  in  ditlferent  degrees,  to  the  Heathen,  to  the  infidel, 
and  to  the  believer.  To  the  first,  they  are  the  law  written  in 
the  heart ;  to  the  second,  they  are  the  substitute  for  revealed 
religion  ;  and  to  the  third,  they  are  the  practical  effect  of  the 
grace  cf  God  upon  the  renewed  creature. 

By  righteousness,  as  here  used  by  the  apostle,  we  are  to 
understand  justice,  the  rendering  to  all  men  their  just  claims 
upon  us,  and  this  not  only  in  a  pecuniary  sense,  but  in  that 
extent  which  is  demanded  by  a  common  origin,  a  common 
nature,  a  mutual  dependance  on  each  other  for  whatever  can 
contiibute  to  the  advancement  of  general  or  particular  happi- 
ness, and  by  a  common  end. 

By  temperance,  which  would  have  been  better  expressed  by 
the  word  continence,  is  meant  the  rule  and  mastery  of  our 
natural  lusts,  passions,  and  appetites,  so  that  they  are  restrained 
from  hurting  either  ourselves  or  others. 

By  a  judgment  to  come,  is  to  be  understood,  that  account 
which  every  one  of  us  shall  give  to  God  for  the  use  of  a  rational 
nature,  for  the  light  of  revealed  truth,  and  for  the  mercies  of 
redemption  by  Jesus  Christ. 

Come,  then,  my  hearers,  especially  those  who  are  as  yet  in 
opposition  to  the  gospel,  let  us  reason  together  of  these  things. 
In  this  short  abstract  of  what  the  Lord  our  God  requires  of  us, 
of  what  the  gospel  proposes,  and  is  provided  to  work  in  us  by 
the  transforming  power  of  grace,  what  is  there  to  which  any  of 
you  should  be  opposed  1  Are  you,  indeed,  enemies  to  integrity 
and  fair  dealing  among  men,  to  peace  and  order  in  society,  to 
quiet  and  repose  in  the  world  ]  Are  you  desirous  that  the 
beastly  passions  of  our  nature  should  be  set  free  from  the 
restraints  of  law  and  conscience,  and  lewdness  and  inconti- 
nence be  allowed  to  revel  in  unrestrained  debauchery  1  Are 
you  willing  that  those  checks  to  the  commission  of  secure  and 


NOT    TO    BE    NEGLECTED.  325 

secret  wickedness,  which  the  apprehensions  of  futurity  alone 
supply,  should  be  removed  from  the  consciences  of  wicked 
men  ]  No,  you  will  say,  God  forbid  that  in  any  of  these 
respects  the  salutary  Influence  of  law  and  religion  on  the  wel- 
fare of  the  world  should  be  done  away.  Why,  then,  let  me  ask, 
has  not  that  religion,  whose  object  and  aim  it  is  to  enforce  and 
enlarge  all  the  relative  duties  of  life,  to  increase  the  sum  of 
human  happiness  in  time  and  to  perpetuate  it  in  eternity,  your 
decided  countenance  and  support?  Can  any  one  of  you — can 
the  collected  ingenuity  of  all  put  together,  render  a  reason  of 
any  kind  (for  I  will  not  call  for  a  satisfactory  one)  of  your 
neglect  of  religion. 

But  let  me  reason  with  you  further.  Are  you  not  aware  that 
all  temporal  blessings,  that  security  of  life  and  property,  that 
the  endearing  relations  of  family  and  kindred,  with  all  that  sweet- 
ens the  pilgrimage  of  this  world  to  us  poor,  perishing  creatures, 
depend  for  their  whole  value  on  the  sanctions  of  religion.  For, 
however  wisely  human  laws  may  be  contrived,  however  severely 
their  penalties  may  be  enforced,  it  is  nevertheless  to  men's 
natural  apprehensions  of  hereafter  that  they  owe  their  chief 
power.  The  sanctity  of  an  oath,  on  which  the  life,  the  property, 
the  character,  peace,  and  comfort  of  every  man  more  or  less 
depends,  derives  its  whole  importance  from  this,  that  verily  there 
is  a  God  that  judgeth  in  the  earth.  And  the  penalty  of  death, 
the  highest  which  human  laws  can  inflict,  derives  its  chief 
tenour  from  the  apprehension  in  the  criminal  of  what  awaits  him 
after  death.  Hence  it  follows,  undeniably,  that  all  neglect  or 
contempt  of  religion  is  a  public  offence,  inasmuch  as  it  saps 
the  foundations  of  social  order,  and  tends  directly  to  the  downfall 
of  all  that  is  venerable  and  desirable  in  life  ;  and  every  individual 
is  just  so  far  concerned  in  the  prevalence  and  advancement 
of  religion  among  mankind,  as  he  is  interested  for  life  and 
property,  for  public  peace  and  private  repose. 

Thus  might  I  continue  to  reason  with  you,  my  friends,  and 
unanswerably,  too,  even  from  temporal  considerations.  What, 
then,  ought  to  be  the  effect,  when  we  extend  our  reasonings  to 
those  which  are  eternal ;  when  we  consider  the  awful  perfec- 
tions of  Almighty  God,  the  astonishing  discoveries  made  to  us 


326  THE    WARNINGS    OF    CONSCIENCE 

by  revelation,  the  wonderful  method  of  our  redemption  by  his 
only  Son  becoming  a  sacrifice  for  our  sins,  with  all  the  means 
provided  for  the  renewal  and  sanctification  of  sinful  creatures — 
and  that  it  is  our  unspeakable  privilege  to  be  called  to  the 
knowledge  of  this  grace,  and  to  the  hope  of  eternal  life  through 
sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  belief  of  the  truth  ?  Where  can 
the  shadow  of  a  reason  be  found  for  indifference  to  such  a 
lively  hope,  much  more  for  contempt  and  opposition  to  what 
reason,  revelation,  and  conscience  unite  in  pressing  upon  us  as 
our  first  duty,  our  highest  and  best  interest  1  Let  me  reason 
with  you  a  little  further,  my  friends.  Would  the  profession 
and  practice  of  religion  make  you  less  valuable  members  of 
society  1 — worse  men,  worse  citizens,  worse  husbands  and 
wives,  worse  parents  and  children,  worse  relations  and  friends  ? 
You  cannot  think  so.  Would  they  interfere  with  your  progress 
and  advancement  in  the  present  life  1  In  no  shape,  whatever, 
unless,  indeed,  that  advancement  depended  on  unrighteous  gain, 
or  was  sought  for  the  sake  of  intemperate  enjoyment  ;  for 
religion  requires  us  to  deny  ourselves  of  nothing  but  ungodliness 
and  worldly  lusts.  Is  it  any  hardship,  is  it,  indeed,  grievous  to 
you  to  be  true  in  your  sayings,  just  in  your  dealings,  merciful 
and  compassionate  to  your  fellow  creatures,  to  do  unto  all  men 
as  ye  would  they  should  do  unto  you  1  Yet  this  is  the  law  and 
the  prophets.  Is  there  any  thing  disgraceful  or  dishonourable 
in  acknowledging  your  dependence  upon  your  heavenly  Father, 
in  praising  him  for  the  abundance  of  his  mercy  and  goodness, 
in  worshipping  his  glorious  majesty,  in  reverencing  his  bound- 
less power  and  might,  and  in  setting  your  hearts  to  obey  his 
righteous  laws  ?  Yet  to  fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments 
is  the  whole  duty  of  man.  Is  there  any  thing  discouraging  in 
the  hope  of  eternal  life  1  Yet  this  is  assured  to  the  believer,  and 
to  the  believer  only,  in  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Oh,  my  hearers, 
what  shall  we  say  to  these  things  1  What  is  this  world,  and  all 
its  perishing  vanities,  to  heaven  and  immortal  glory  1  What 
will  it  profit  you  in  the  end  if,  for  a  portion  of  time,  you  give 
your  souls  in  exchange  ?  Thus  you  see  that  the  reason- 
ableness of  religion  is  the  great  reproach  of  those  who  neglect 
k ;  for  whai  doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require  of  thee,  O  man,  but  to 


NOT    TO    BE    NEGLECTED.  327 

do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ?  And 
thus  might  I  continue  to  reason  with  you,  my  hearers,  from  the 
nature  of  right  and  wrong,  from  the  conscience  of  your  own 
minds,  and  from  the  agreement  of  both  with  God's  revealed 
word.  But  as  sufficient  has  been  said  to  satisfy  all  who  are  not 
hardened  against  truth  and  reason,  I  shall  pass  on  to  the 

II.  Next  head  of  my  discourse,  in  which  I  proposed  to  point 
out  to  you  the  guilt  and  folly  of  neglecting  the  warnings  of  your 
conscience  and  the  impressions  made  on  your  minds  by  the 
word  of  God,  whether  preached  or  read. 

As  it  hath  pleased  God  to  remove  the  disability  of  our  fallen 
condition  so  as  to  make  us  capable  of  religion,  and  this  in  a  man- 
ner consistent  with  his  own  glorious  perfections  and  our  qualifi- 
cations as  intelligent,  moral  creatures,  it  follows  that  we  have  a 
part  to  perform  in  working  out  our  own  salvation.  To  under- 
stand what  that  part  is  should,  therefore,  be  our  first  duty,  and 
to  perforn)  it  when  known  our  most  earnest  endeavour.  For 
the  one,  we  must  go  to  revelation,  to  the  word  which  God  in 
these  last  days  hath  spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son  ;  for  the  other,  we 
must  apply  ourselves  to  the  use  of  those  means  by  which  God 
works  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure.  Now, 
these  means  are,  first,  that  clear  discovery  of  his  will  concerning 
us,  made  in  the  Sciiptures  of  our  faith  ;  next,  the  reason  and 
conscience  of  our  own  minds ;  and,  lastly,  the  help  and  power 
of  his  Holy  Spirit,  by  whose  enlightening,  sanctifying  influences 
the  two  first  become  profitable  to  our  eternal  salvation  ;  and  the 
constant  unvarying  agreement  of  these  three  is  a  powerful  proof 
that  they  are  alike  divine  in  their  origin.  Hence  it  follows  that 
the  guilt  of  neglecting,  opposing,  and  stifling  the  warnings  of 
the  monitor  within  us,  and  of  the  impressions  made  upon  our 
minds  by  the  word  of  God,  is  precisely  the  guilt  of  rejecting 
the  counsel  of  God  against  our  own  souls,  perversely  setting 
ourselves  in  opposition  to  his  known  will,  slighting  his  pro- 
mises, defying  his  threatenings,  and  daring  his  vengeance.  And 
t.ie  folly  of  acting  thus  iu  a  matter  of  such  unspeakable  import- 
ance as  the  loss  or  salvation  of  our  immortal  souls,  is  manfested 
by  the  following  particulars  : — 

First,  all  the  helps  and  advantages  we  enjoy  for  the  advance- 


328  THE   WARNINGS    OF    CONSCIENCE 

ment  of  religion  in  our  souls,  are  none  of  them  of  our  own 
procuring,  but  the  free  gift  of  God's  mercy  to  undeserving  crea- 
tures ;  therefore,  they  are  not  at  our  command  to  come  and  go 
at  our  bidding.      We  are  saved  by  grace. 

Secondly,  we  are  threatened  with  the  loss  of  them  if  slighted 
or  abused — From  kim  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  aioay  even  that 
which  he  hath. 

Thirdly,  if  deprived  of  them,  all  spiritual  attainment  is  at  an 
end — Without  me,  says  our  Lord,  ye  can  do  nothing. 

If  to  these  we  add,  that  it  is  the  very  nature  of  sin  persisted  in, 
to  harden  the  heart,  and  render  men  callous  to  reproof  and  admo- 
nition ;  that  all  habits  are  strengthened  by  indulgence ;  that  our 
repentance  and  reformation  must  be  completed  in  the  short  and 
uncertain  period  of  the  present  life,  we  cannot  but  see  that  care- 
lessness and  neglect,  thoughtlessness  and  delay  in  such  a  case, 
is  not  merely  folly,  but  the  frantic  madness  of  despising  our  own 
mercies  and  provoking  God  to  take  them  from  us.  And  so  great 
is  our  danger  in  this  respect,  that  we  are,  above  all  other  things, 
cautioned  against  grieving,  quenching,  and  doing  despite  to  the 
Spirit  of  grace.  He  that  being  often  reproved  hardenelh  himself, 
shall  suddenly  be  destroyed  and  that  tvithout  remedy.  For  this 
cause  God  shall  send  them  strong  delusion,  that  they  should  believe 
a  lie,  that  they  all  might  be  damned  who  believe  not  the  truth  hut 
had  pleasure  in  unrighteousness.  And  yet  in  defiance  of  danger, 
in  despite  of  warnings,  what  multitudes  set  aside  the  invitations 
of  the  gospel,  the  reason  of  their  own  minds,  the  voice  of  con- 
science, and  the  afi'ectionate  reproofs  and  admonitions  of  God's 
Holy  Spirit.  What  numbers,  like  the  poor  Heathen  mention- 
ed in  the  text,  say  to  the  united  testimony  of  God  and  nature. 
Go  thy  loay  for  this  time  ;  ichen  I  have  a  more  convenient  season  I 
will  call  for  thee.  What  an  epitome  of  human  nature  is  this 
Roman  governor  !  How  exactly  may  every  procrastinating, 
delaying  sinner  behold  his  own  case  in  this  particular  trait  of  the 
character  of  Felix.  How  strikingly  is  the  power  of  conscience 
set  before  us  in  the  alarm  which  this  cruel  and  rapacious,  this 
unjust  and  incontinent  Heathen  experienced  while  St.  Paul 
reasoned  with  him  of  the  consequences  which  must  follow  from 
the  righteous  judgment  of  God  ;  and  yet  he  had  nothing  but  the 


NOT    TO    BE    NEGLECTED.  329 

light  of  nature  and  the  witness  of  his  own  spirit  to  testify  of  the 
reasonableness,  truth,  and  certainty  of  the  apostle's  argument. 
If,  then,  the  amount  of  all  that  the  religion  of  the  gospel  requires 
of  us  is  thus  found  written  in  our  hearts  by  the  finger  of  God— 
if  the  natural  apprehensions  of  what  his  infinite  justice,  purity, 
and  holmess  demand  from  reasonable  creatures  are  thus  sutfi- 
cient  to  alarm  the  guilty  and  show  the  sinner  the  folly  of  his 
ways,  what  power  of  language  can  express  the  madness  of  those 
Who,  to  this  universal  testimony,  have  the  clearand  express  decla- 
ration  of  the  wrath  of  God  revealed  from  heaven  against  all 
unrighteousness  of  men-the  explicit  knowledge  that  God  hath 
appointed  a  day,  in  the  which  he  will  judge  the  world  in  right- 
eousness-the  awful  assurance  that  eternal  happiness  or  everlast- 
ing misery  will  follow  that  judgment,  according  as  we  have  done 
good  or  evil— with  the  blessed  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
make  effectual  the  natural  powers  and  faculties  wherewith  God 
hath  endowed  them  1     Beloved,  says  the  apostle,  if  our  hearts 
condemn  us-if  the  natural  reason  and  conscience  of  our  own 
minds  bear  witness  against  us,  God  is  greater  than  our  hearts 
and  knoweth  all  things-he  sees  the  secret  springs  and  motives 
of  all  our  conduct ;  he,  therefore,  sees  deeper  into  our  guilt,  and 
must  most  surely  condemn  us. 

Thus,  my  hearers,  are  we  left  without  excuse  every  way 
Even  the  plea  of  ignorance  is  taken  from  us  ;  and  deep  must  be 
the  damnation  of  those  who  continue  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
warnings  of  conscience  and  the  counsel  of  God  by  his  word 
and  Spirit. 

The  application  of  what  we  have  said  is  both  general  and 
particular. 

As  we  must  all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ, 
and  shall  receive  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body  the 
consequences  of  that  day  should  be  uppermost  in  our  thoughts 
and  foremost  in  our  endeavours  ;  and  as  it  hath  pleased  God 
to  favour  us  with  the  rule  which  shall  guide  his  righteous  judg- 
ment, the  award  of  that  tribunal  ought  to  be  the  test  by  which 
to  try  the  worth  of  our  wordly  condition.  Whatever  our  state 
in  this  life  may  be,  whether  high  or  low,  rich  or  poor,  bond  or 
Iree,  the  duties  belonging  to  it  form  the  second  great  branch  of 

Vol.  II.— 42 


330 


THE    WARNINGS    OF    CONSCIENCE 


the  whole  duty  of  man,  and  are  all  comprehended  under  the  two 
heads  of  justice  and  tem[)erance.  In  the  observance  of  the  one, 
we  render  to  all  their  dues  ;  by  the  other,  we  are  restrained 
from  whatever  may  prove  hurtful  either  to  ourselves  or  to 
others.  And  these  points,  we  are  informed  by  our  Lord,  in  the 
gospel,  will  be  the  subject  matter  of  his  righteous  judgment- 
Hence,  we  learn,  my  hearers,  that  the  great  practical  pur- 
pose of  Christ's  religion  is,  the  restraint  of  our  sinful,  huitfu! 
passions,  and  the  improvement  of  our  moral  natures  to  the 
attainment  of  all  goodness,  righteousness,  and  truth.  For  he 
that  in  these  things  serveth  Christ  is  acceptable  to  God  ami 
approved  of  men. 

By  this  rule,  then,  let  us  try  ourselves  and  prove  our  religion  ; 
learning,  by  the  example  of  Felix,  that  there  can  be  no  sure 
and  lasting  peace  to  the  unjust  and  incontinent — that,  sooner  or 
later,  our  sins  will  find  us  out — that,  however  securely  or 
secretly  committed,  however  we  may  be  able  to  stifle  the  voice 
of  conscience,  yet  a  da}'  is  coining  when  they  will  be  openly 
exposed  before  an  assembled  universe.  If  a  poor  Heathen  was 
constiained  to  tremble  at  the  prospect  of  Goo's  righteous  judg- 
ment on  the  injustice  and  lewdness  of  his  hfe,  what  alarms 
should  seize  their  consciences,  who,  under  the  light  of  the 
gospel,  perhaps  with  the  profession  of  it  in  their  mouths,  not 
only  do  such  things,  but  have  pleasure  in  them  that  do  them. 
By  the  circumstances  which  belong  to  this  ])assage  of  Scripture, 
we  are  instructed,  that  however  profitable  the  practice  of  fraud 
and  iniquity  may  be — however  high  the  chase  of  ambition  may 
exalt  us — however  gratifying  the  indulgence  of  our  sensual 
})assions  may  be,  yet  a  weight  is  suspended  to  such  practices 
which  acts  with  accumulating  power  in  sinking  such  as  follow 
the  lu.sts  of  the  flesh  to  the  lowest  grade  of  illfam3^  Reason 
and  revelation  alike  condemn  the  unjust  and  sensual  person  ; 
and  the  admonition  of  God's  Holy  Spip.it  is  responded  to  by 
the  verdict  of  conscience,  in  that  state  of  tremour  and  alarm 
with  which  a  sense  of  guilt,  the  fear  of  discovery  even  among 
their  fellow  creatures,  with  the  more  terrible  apprehensions  of 
a  future  judgment,  haunt  the  fears  of  wicked  men.  From  this 
preponderating  weight  there  is  no  escape  but  by  the  surrender 


KOT    TO    BE    NEGLECTED.  331 

of  every  hope  which  can  cheer  the  valley  and  shadow  of 
death  by  prospects  beyond  the  grave.  The  voice  of  conscience 
may,  indeed,  be  silenced  by  custom  in  sin,  but  it  is  not,  therefore, 
dead.  Awake  it  will,  most  commonly,  even  in  this  life,  as  we 
see  exemplified  in  the  case  before  us  ;  but  if  not  here,  yet  surely 
hereafter,  when  a  certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and 
fiery  indignation  shall  consume  the  adversary,  not  only  of  God 
and  his  fellow  creatures,  but  of  his  own  soul. 

The  particular  application  of  the  subject,  is,  to  the  most 
universal  sin  of  which  mankind  are  guilty.  Some  excel  in  one 
species  of  wickedness  and  some  in  another  ;  but  in  slighting 
and  stifling  the  secret  voice  of  conscience,  in  rejecting  the 
admonition  of  God's  holy  word,  in  opposing  the  convictions  of 
God's  Holy  Spirit,  where  is  the  person  who  is  not.  in  some 
good  degree,  guilty  before  God,  and  at  this  moment  conscious 
of  having  repeatedly  said,  if  not  in  words,  yet  in  conduct.  Go 
thy  way  for  this  time  ;  when  I  have  a  more  convenient  season  I  will 
call  for  thee. 

My  fellow  sinner,  who  art  thus  treasuring  up  wrath  against 
the  day  of  wrath  and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of 
God,  let  the  example  of  j)oor  Felix,  and  what  little  I  have  been 
enabled  to  say  upon  it,  be  a  warning  to  thee  ft)r  the  time  to 
come.  I  know  thy  mind  is  now  busy,  and  a  contest  is  going  on 
within  thee,  the  flesh  lusting  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit 
against  the  flesh — the  pride  of  thy  unhumbled  heart  against  the 
guilt  and  folly  of  persisting  in  rebellion  against  God  and  nature, 
against  the  reason  of  thy  own  mind,  the  convictions  of  thy 
conscience,  and  the  religion  of  the  gospel.  Oh  !  let  me  now 
throw  my  mite  into  the  scale  of  thy  salvation,  and,  in  the 
impressive  words  of  my  Redeemer,  ask  thee,  What  will  it  prof  t 
thee  to  gain  the  whole  ivorld  and  lose  thy  own  soul  ?  What  will 
ihe  gains  of  injustice,  the  enjoyments  of  sinful  pleasure,  the 
praise  of  men,  or  the  applause  of  scoffers  and  mockers  at 
religion  do  for  thee  in  that  day  when  God  shall  judge  the 
secrets  of  men  according  to  the  gospel  of  Christ  1  O  let  not 
the  secret  workings  of  thy  heart  this  day,  then,  rise  in  judgment 
against  thee,  and  another  putting  otf  to  a  more  convenient 
season  the  many  calls  and  invitations  of  God's  Holy  Spikit 


332  THE    WARNINGS    OF    CONSCIENCE,  &C. 

shut  thee  up,  perhaps,  in  judicial  blindness  and  hardness  of 
heart.  Make  not  a  preached  gospel  the  savour  of  death  to  thy 
soul  by  rejecting  the  truth  which  is  according  to  godliness,  but 
surrender  thyself  to  that  word  which  now  whispers,  This  is  the 
way,  walk  ye  in  ii. 

My  Christian  brethren,  let  us,  too,  take  warning  by  the 
admonition  given  us  in  the  case  of  Felix.  Let  us  make  con- 
science of  what  we  profess.  Remember,  that  unto  whom  much 
is  given,  of  the  same  shall  much  be  required.  That  not  every 
one  that  saith  to  Christ,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  That  to  all  workers  of  iniquity,  to  all 
unchaste  and  unclean  persons,  no  matter  how  loud  and  zealous 
they  may  be  in  a  profession  of  religion,  he  will  say,  /  know  you 
not,  depart  from  me,  ye  cursed.  Remember  that  the  agreement  of 
practice  with  profession  constitutes  the  beauty  of  holiness  ; 
that  we  are  bound  to  exercise  ourselves  continually  to  have  a 
conscience  void  of  offence  towards  God  and  towards  men. 
Therefore,  my  brethren,  If  ye  know  these  things  happy  are  ye  if 
ye  do  them.  An  approving  conscience  is  the  witness  of  God 
within  us.  Watch,  therefore,  for  that  testimony  ;  and  when,  in 
the  many  trials  of  the  present  life,  temptation  may  get  the 
better  of  you,  listen  to  the  reproof  conscience  shall  then  bring 
with  a  ready  mind,  follow  the  direction  it  shall  give,  and  let 
instant  repentance  and  reparation  be  the  convenient  season  to 
call  for  that  help  which  God  is  ever  ready  to  give  to  those  who 
tremble  at  his  word.  Thus  shall  the  kingdom  of  God  be  set 
up  in  your  hearts,  and  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  give  you  a  foretaste  of  that  blessedness  which 
awaits  the  faithful  at  the  riarht  hand  of  God. 


SERMON    XXX. 

A    WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS. 

John  iii.  18,  middle  clause. 
"  But  he  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already." 

The  great  purpose  of  revelation  is,  to  discover  to  us  mortals, 
those  things  which  our  senses  can  by  no  means  compass,  or  of 
which  we  at  best  can  have  but  a  feeble  and  obscure  percep- 
tion. Though  the  visible  things  of  God,  the  wonders  of  the 
material  world,  hourly  declare  his  eternal  power  and  godhead, 
and  present  him  to  us  in  all  the  splendour  of  his  incommunica- 
ble attributes ;  though  the  daily  and  hourly  mercies  of  his 
providence  might  teach  us  that  lesson  of  love,  gratitude,  and 
thankfulness,  which  protection,  support,  and  supply  should 
bring  home  to  our  hearts  ;  yet  our  own  experience,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  great  record  of  human  depravity,  might  instruct 
us  that  more  is  needed  than  the  outward  natural  knowledge  of 
God,  to  contribute  to  our  present  or  future  comfort.  The 
things  that  may  he  known  of  God,  from  the  contemplation  of 
his  works,  though  grand  and  impressive,  are,  nevertheless, 
oppressive  and  overcoming  to  our  feeble  and  depraved  faculties. 
So  infinite  is  the  distance  between  the  glorious  Creator,  and  the 
poor,  finite,  perishing  creature,  that  it  appears  presumptuous 
in  the  extreme  to  venture  upon  such  lofty  meditations.  Yet 
from  the  very  constitution  of  our  nature  we  are  drawn  to  such 
contemplations  whenever  our  nobler  faculties  are  disengaged 
from  the  immediate  contact  of  sensible  things,  the  spirit  within 
us  seeks  her  kindred  skies,  and  the  active  mind  labours  to  draw 
aside  the  veil  which  shrouds  the  Eternal  from  our  view.  But, 
alas  !  my  friends,  all  is  darkness  and  conjecture  to  our  limited 
powers  ;  and  what  is  worse,  all  is  overwhelming  and  comfort- 
less to  our  labouring,  anxious  minds  :  clouds  and  darkness  are 
round  about  him,  so  that  man  cannot  search  out  the  Almighty 


334  A    WARNTNG    TO    UNBELIEVERS. 

to  perfection.  What  he  can  attain  to  independent  of  revela- 
tion fills  him  with  wonder,  amazement,  and  fear ;  so  that  he  is 
ready  now,  as  on  the  first  transgression,  to  hide  himself  from 
God — to  make  his  escape  fiom  Him,  in  whom  he  lives,  and 
moves,  and  has  his  being,  by  whose  power  he  is  protected  and 
preserved,  by  whose  mercy  he  is  spared,  by  whose  bounty  his 
wants  are  supplied,  and  by  whose  compassionate  love  all  his 
disability,  ignorance,  poverty,  weakness,  and  sinfulness  is  pro- 
vided for  and  removed. 

Could  this  be  so,  my  hearers,  was  every  thing  between  God 
and  our  souls  at  peace  and  in  harmony  1  Could  the  contem- 
plation of  the  only  wise,  infinitely  good,  and  most  merciful  God 
fill  our  hearts  with  fear  and  dismay,  were  we  not  conscious  of 
such  a  sej)aralion  between  him  and  us  as  can  be  removed  by 
no  human  power  1  Could  our  natural  notions  of  that  great 
and  good  Being  who  governs  the  universe  be  painful  and 
oppressive,  were  it  not  that  we  feel  that  we  are,  every  way,  in 
every  imagination  and  thought  of  our  hearts,  and  in  the  whole 
practice  of  our  lives,  opposed  to  his  righteous  government,  and 
unworthy  of  his  regard.?  Impossible,  my  brethren  ;  there  must 
be  a  cause  for  every  effect,  and  the  same  argument  which  is 
conclusive  for  the  being  of  God,  is  equally  strong  in  its  applica- 
tion to  the  existence  of  sin,  as  the  fatal  cause  of  that  enmity  and 
opposition  to  him,  which  is  ma-nifested  in  the  natural  man.  If, 
with  the  volume  of  nature  spread  out  before  us,  we  can  per- 
ceive nothing  of  God  but  what  binds  us  up  in  sullen  subjection 
to  his  infinite  power — if  his  eternal  godhead,  abstract  from  what 
is  I'cvealed,  furnishes  no  channel  of  help,  no  conifoct  of  hope, 
no  offer  of  mercy  to  such  creatures  as  we  are,  what  do  we  not 
owe,  my  fiiends,  to  that  revelation  v/hich  so  richly  sup[)lies  our 
severest  v^ant,  and  so  freely  provides  for  our  highest  comfort,  in 
the  knowledge  of  God  reconciling  the  world  to  himself  by  Jesus 
Christ,  and  in  the  discoveries  made  to  us  of  our  original, 
present,  and  future  condition  ]  Here,  and  here  only,  can  our 
anxious  fears  and  restless  conjectures  find  repose.  And,  how- 
ever impiety  may  rave,  or  infidelity  muster  up  her  shattered 
arguments  and  powerless  objections — however  the  cares  of  this 
life,  and  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  and  the  lusts  of  other  things 


A    WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS.  335 

may  and,  alas  !  do  defeat  the  gracious  purpose  of  God  in  the 
revehuion  of  his  Son,  yet  in  the  closing  scene  of  this  life's 
pilgrimage,  when  the  hopes  and  fears  of  time  give  place  to  those 
of  eternity,  the  united  testimony  of  saint  and  sinner  bears  witness 
to  that  recorded  truth  by  which  the  everlasting  condition  of 
each  shall  be  determined  ;  then  it  is,  when  trembling  on  the 
verge  of  a  new  being,  that  those  who,  in  the  day  of  health  and 
strength,  in  the  pursuit  of  profit  and  pleasure,  care  for  none  of 
these  things,  and  harden  their  hearts  against  the  truth,  show 
that  there  is  a  witness  for  revelation  which  no  sophistry  can 
defeat. 

To  that  revelation,  then,  let  me  now  direct  your  most  earnest 
attention,  as  the  only  source  from  whence  you  can  derive  any 
useful  knowledge  of  yourselves,  any  comfortable  knowledge  of 
God,  or  any  hope  that  is  worth  depending  upon  ;  and,  in  going 
along  with  me  in  the  consideration  of  the  momentous  discovery 
made  in  the  words  of  my  text,  prepare  yourselves  to  settle  the 
most  awful  inquiry  which  can  occupy  the  thoughts  of  account- 
able beings,  to  wit :  whether  you  are  believers  in  the  Scripture 
sense  of  the  word,  or  whether  you  are  yet  in  the  gall  of  bitter- 
ness and  in  the  bonds  of  iniquity. 

For  he  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already. 

To  assist  what  I  can  in  this  very  important  inquiry,  in  the 

FiKST  place,  I  shall  show  you  the  ground  on  which  our  Lord 
asserts  the  fact  declared  in  the  words  of  the  text — that  every 
unbeliever  is  condemned  already. 

Secondlv,  I  shall  point  out  to  you  the  method  which  God 
hath  been  pleased  to  provide  and  appoint  for  the  removal  of  this 
condemnation.      In  the 

Third  place,  I  shall  show  you  what  is  meant  by  believing 
in  Christ;   and,  then. 

Conclude  with  an  application  of  the  subject  to  the  different 
descriptions  of  those  who  are  now  in  the  presence  of  God  for 
life  or  for  death. 

I.  First,  the  ground  on  which  our  Lord  asserts  the  fact, 
declared  in  the  word  <  of  the  text,  that  every  unbeliever  is  con- 
demned already,  that  is,  is  under  a  sentence  of  eternal  death. 

Before  I  come  directly  to  the  point  I  wish  to  premise  that  the 


336  A   WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS. 

words  of  my  text  are  a  part  of  that  remarkable  discourse  which 
our  blessed  Lord  held  with  Nicodemus.  The  inquiry  of  the 
Jewish  Rabbi  was  prompted  by  an  anxious  concern  for  the  wel- 
fare of  his  soul.  Though  a  member  of  the  Jewish  Sanhedrim, 
and  from  what  we  learn  of  him  in  holy  writ,  a  worthy  member 
of  the  Old  Testament  Church,  yet  the  fame  of  our  Saviour's 
miracles  and  the  nature  of  his  doctrine  led  him  to  such  a  con- 
sideration of  all  that  Moses  and  the  prophets  had  spoken,  that 
he  saw  there  was  yet  in  reserve  a  fulfilment  of  the  mercy  pro- 
mised to  the  fathers,  which  embraced  still  clearer  discoveries  of 
that  great  purpose  of  God,  which  was  obscurely  shadowed  out 
in  the  sacrifices  and  expiations  of  the  ceremonial  law.  The 
fulness  of  time,  too,  was  come  in  which  He  who  was  the  desire 
of  all  nations  should  be  manifested  to  Israel.  From  all  these 
circumstances  he  was  moved,  I  doubt  not,  by  the  Spirit  op 
God,  to  desire  that  interview  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth  which  St. 
John  has  recorded,  from  which  he  received  the  great  outline  of 
the  gospel,  and  from  which  we  derive,  in  express  words,  those 
fundamental  doctrines  which,  however  they  may  be  contained 
in  and  inferred  from  other  passages  of  the  Scriptures,  yet  had 
this  part  of  the  gospel  never  come  down  to  us,  would  have  been, 
more  than  they  now  are,  the  objects  of  dispute  and  contention 
in  the  Christian  world.  Hardly,  my  hearers,  do  we  believe 
what  God  hath  spoken  to  us  by  his  Son  of  the  truth  of  which  we 
have  an  internal  witness — eagerly  do  we  catch  at  any  supposed 
ambiguity  in  the  great  rule  of  our  religious  duties,  and  most 
Avillingly  would  we  pare  down  the  law  of  righteousness  to  our 
sinful  standard.  What,  then,  would  have  been  our  darkness  had 
these  first  principles  been  wrapt  up  in  that  mystery  which  would 
have  opened  to  the  most  persevering  and  anxious  research,  and 
to  that  alone,  the  foundation  of  our  hope,  the  rule  of  our  conduct, 
Mark  here,  my  brethren,  the  wisdom  and  prudence  of  Him,  who, 
seeing  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  and  knowing  what  is  in  man, 
hath  so  directed  the  revelation  of  his  will  that  he  that  runs  may 
read,  that  he  that  hears  may  understand,  that  he  that  understands 
may  apply — so  that  he  that  thus  hath  may  have  more  abundance, 
while  he  that  thus  hath  not  shall  be  deprived  of  that  which  he 
seemeth  to  have,  that  every  mouth  may  be  stopped  before  God, 


A    WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS.  337 

and  ourlinal  condemnation  proceed  from  our  own  lips.  O  the  dcplh 
of  the  riches,  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God,  Iiow 
tmsearchahle  are  his  judgments,  and  his  ioays  past  finding  out. 

These  reflections,  my  hearers,  are  drawn  from  me,  not  only 
from  the  circumstances  attending  the  words  which  make  the 
subject  matter  of  my  discourse,  but  because  they  strike  at  the 
root  of  that  carelessness  and  neglect  of  the  Scriptures  which  is 
the  true  cause  of  the  unbelief  and  impiety  which  abounds  among 
us,  at  that  presumptuous  enlargement  and  contraction  of  God's 
true  and  faithful  word,  which  shall  make  it  fit  our  depraved 
standard,  and  give  countenance  to  a  hope  which  is  like  the 
spider's  web  or  the  chaff  which  the  wind  scattereth  abroad  upon 
the  face  of  the  earth. 

But,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  this  vain  and  delusive,  unfound- 
ed and  inconsiderate  hope,  in  the  sweeping  exercise  of  which 
so  many  take  shelter  while  they  are  perfect  strangers  to  the 
only  foundation,  is  rooted  out  by  the  words  of  my  text,  which 
contain  a  doctrine  of  all  others  the  most  abhorent  to  the  nomi- 
nal superficial  believer  in  the  Christian  religion.  They  affirm, 
in  terms  which  admit  of  no  subterfuge  or  qualification,  the  fallen, 
ruined  condition  of  the  human  lace— the  total  separation  from 
God,  and  absolute  condemnation  to  death,  temporal  and  eter- 
nal, which  original  sin  drew  down  upon  Adam  and  all  his  poste- 
rity, and  as  a  clear  consequence,  the  utter  incapacity  of  man  to 
retrieve  himself  from  this  body  of  death— the  corruption  of  all 
his  faculties — the  destruction  of  all  his  vain  and  self-righteous 
hopes.  This  is  the  fact  which  our  Lord  affirms  so  strongly  in 
the  words  of  my  text ;  and  the  ground  or  reason  on  which  the 
assertion  is  made,  is  this  : — 

When  it  pleased  God  to  call  into  existence  a  race  of  beings, 
made  only  a  little  lower  than  the  angels,  and  endued  with  all 
the  faculties  correspondent  to  their  place  in  the  scale  of  crea- 
tion, he  placed  them  under  the  direction  of  a  law,  pure,  holy, 
and  perfect,  a  transcript  of  the  divine  perfections.  In  obedience 
to  this  law  for  a  season — (according  to  the  universal  impres- 
sions of  all  divines,  though  no  where  in  the  word  of  God  so  far 
as  I  know  it,  is  the  limits  defined ;  nevertheless,  from  the  circum- 
stances it  is  fairly  inferred)— in  obedience  to  this  law  for  a  season 
Vol.   II.— 43 


338  A    WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS, 

I  say,  a  deathless  life  and  immortal  glory  were  attainable,  while 
the  awful  alternative  of  endless  death  and  eternal  misery  were 
fairly  threatened  as  the  consequence  of  disobedience.  This  do, 
and  thou  shall  live — this  transgress,  and  thou  shall  die,  was  the 
fair  and  declared  condition  upon  which  man,  thoroughly  furnish- 
ed for  his  trial,  stood  for  immortality.  But  he  transgressed  and 
fell,  he  disobeyed  and  incurred  the  curse — In  the  day  thou  eatest 
thereof  thou  shall  surely  die.  Die  he  did,  my  brethren,  to  all 
spiritual  and  heavenly  purposes  ;  the  image  of  God  in  his  soul 
was  extinguished,  the  empire  of  death  over  his  body  was  estab- 
lished, and  an  impassable  barrier  between  heaven  and  earth  was 
built  up  by  human  sin,  which  no  human  righteousness  could 
take  away.  But  he  fell  not  alone — the  curse  of  the  law  was 
not  exhausted  on  the  transgressor,  nor  the  appetite  of  death 
satisfied  with  one  sacrifice — with  him  his  posterity  were  subjected 
to  all  the  penalties  consequent  on  his  sin.  For  as  by  one  man  sin 
entered  into  the  ivorld,  and  death  by  sin,  so  death  passed  upon  all 
men,  in  that  all  have  sinned.  But  let  no  man  say  there  is 
unrighteousness  with  God,  in  thus  visiting  the  sins  of  the  father 
upon  the  children.  For,  as  we  who  are  his  posterity  would  have 
shared  all  the  advantages  of  his  triumph  had  he  stood,  the 
justice  of  God  stands  clear  of  all  imputation  in  our  suffering 
under  the  consequences  of  his  disgrace,  even  though  we  have 
not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Jidani's  transgression. 

Such,  my  hearers,  is  the  ground  or  reason  of  that  universal 
condemnation  asserted  in  the  text.  For  disobedience  to  this 
pure  and  holy  law,  in  the  progenitor  and  representative  of  the 
human  race,  the  sentence  of  the  law  hath  gone  forth  against  all 
mankind  ;  and  they  are  unalterably  bound  by  the  infinite  truth, 
purity,  holiness,  and  justice  of  Almighty  God,  to  the  perform- 
ance or  the  penalty.  This  is  the  true  state  of  every  soul  born 
into  this  present  evil  world.  The  rigorous  demands  of  the  law 
must  be  complied  with,  the  offended  justice  of  God  must  be 
satisfied,  while  our  fallen  condition  has  rendered  either  impos- 
sible. Shut  up  and  concluded  under  sin,  independent  of  our 
own  personal  transgressions  against  God,  well  may  we  join  the 
apostle  Paul,  in  his  deep  experience  of  the  boundless  extent  of 
our  depravity  and  ruin,  and  exclaim  with  him,   O   wretched 


A    WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS.  339 

creatures  that  we  are !  who  shall  deliver  us  from  the  body  of  this 
death  ?  Delivered  we  must  be,  my  hearers,  or  perish  eternally ; 
and  thanks  be  to  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  this 
deliverance  is  freely  offered  in  the  gospel  to  every  child  of  Adam. 

II.  Of  the  method  of  this  deliverance  I  am  now,  in  the 
second  place,  to  speak. 

It  is  a  remark  I  have  somewhere  met  with,  that  man's  ex- 
tremity is  God's  opportunity.  And  while  this  is  verified  in  the 
constant  experience  of  his  providence,  it  is  most  powerfully 
brought  home  to  the  heart  in  the  contemplation  of  the  riches 
of  his  grace,  in  the  redemption  of  the  world  by  his  only  be- 
gotten Son. 

Sunk  in  all  the  misery  and  helplessness  of  sin  ;  justly  cast  off 
from  the  favour  of  God  ;  pursued  by  the  curse  of  the  broken 
law  ;  exposed  to  the  vengeance  which  infinite  justice  demanded, 
whither  could  the  fallen  sinner  flee  1  Heaven  was  barred  against 
him  ;  the  earth  was  cursed  for  his  sake ;  hell  was  moved  from 
beneath  to  receive  him  ;  no  mercy  could  be  found  in  the  law 
itself;  future  obedience,  had  it  been  possible,  could  avail  nothing 
to  cancel  the  debt  already  contracted— T/iws,  by  the  offence  of 
one,  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  condemnation.  In  this  ex- 
tremity, God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  had  compassion  on  the 
work  of  his  hands,  and,  by  his  only  begotten  Son,  provided 
for  our  recovery.  To  remove  the  condemnation  under  which 
we  laboured,  consistent  with  the  dignity  and  hohness  of 
Jehovah,  no  other  mode  remained,  than  by  rendering  to  offend- 
ed justice  the  satisfaction  required  by  the  broken  law,  and  to 
the  law  itself,  the  obedience  demanded  by  the  purity  and  holi- 
ness of  its  precepts.  This  was  the  price  to  be  paid  for  our 
ransom — the  purchase  of  that  mercy,  which,  by  the  gospel,  is 
freely  offered  to  us.  As  we  fell  in  a  representative,  so  in  a 
representative  are  we  saved.  The  Lord  Jesus,  by  the  will  of 
God,  became  the  representative  of  fallen  man,  undertook  in 
our  stead  to  fulfil  the  demands  of  the  law,  and  atone  for  our 
sins.  Hence  the  deep  mystery  of  the  incarnation  of  the  Son 
of  God,  that,  in  the  very  truth  of  that  nature  in  which  it  was 
brolcen,  the  righteousness  of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled.  That 
he  who  as  God,  could  not  suffer,  might,  in  the  pain  and  agony 


340  A   WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS. 

of  the  cross,  taste  death  for  every  man,  and  expiate  the  guilt  of 
human  sin.  By  this  great  and  gracious  undertaking  of  our 
blessed  Lord,  the  relation  in  which  man  stood  to  his  Creator 
was  changed.  By  the  personal  obedience  of  Jesus  as  our 
representative,  the  law  was  fulfilled  and  honoured.  By  the 
personal  sufferings  of  the  Son  of  God,  in  our  stead,  full  satis- 
faction was  made  to  the  Divine  justice,  and  a  door  of  mercy 
opened,  so  that  God  could  be  just,  and  the  justifier  of  him  that 
believed  in  Jesus.  The  demands  of  the  law  being  fully  satis- 
fied by  the  righteousness  of  one,  the  free  gift  came  upon  all 
men  to  justification  of  life.  This  great  glorious,  and  gracious 
undertaking,  my  brethren,  is  the  foundation  of  the  gospel ;  and 
the  gospel  itself  is  a  communication  from  heaven,  declaring  the 
glad  tidings  to  sinful  mortals,  for  the  obedience  of  faith  ;  that  is, 
that  they  might  believe,  obey,  and  be  saved.  In  this  message  of 
grace,  God  reveals  himself,  by  his  Son,  reconciled  to  his  crea- 
tures ;  and,  in  the  freeness  and  fulness  of  his  mercy,  discharges 
them  from  the  law  or  covenant  of  works,  and  proposes  a  new 
and  more  gracious  covenant,  according  to  which,  the  reward  of 
eternal  life  is  promised  to  the  renewed  obedience  of  penitent 
sinners,  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  Him  hath 
God  exalted  a  prince  and  a  Saviour,  to  give  repentance  unto  Israel, 
and  remission  of  sins.  To  him  is  committed  the  management 
and  direction  of  that  Church  which  he  bought  with  his  own 
blood  ;  in  him  is  laid  up  for  us  sinners  fulness  of  grace  to  sanc- 
tify and  save  ;  and  to  him  is  transferred  and  made  over  the  right 
to  judge  his  people,  to  acquit  and  condemn  them,  according  to 
the  merciful  and  gracious  terms  of  the  gospel.  So  that  every 
way,  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men, 
ivhereby  we  must  be  saved,  save  only  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ 
of  JVazareth. 

Thus  we  see,  my  brethren,  the  wonderful  method  which  the 
wisdom  of  God  hath  provided  and  appointed  for  our  deliverance 
from  the  curse  of  the  law,  to  remove  the  condemnation  which 
sin  had  brought  upon  the  world,  and  make  room  for  the  exer- 
cise of  mercy ;  and  this  in  a  way  consistent  with  all  his  perfec- 
tions— so  that  mercy  and  truth  are  met  together,  righteousness 
and  peace  have  kissed  each  other.     And  thus  we  see  the  ground 


A   WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS.  341 

of  the  grand  doctrine  of  our  religion,  salvation  by  grace  through 
faith,  not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast.  We  were 
gone  for  ever,  my  hearers,  every  way  lost  and  undone,  con- 
demned by  the  righteous  judgment  of  God,  and  delivered  over 
to  the  awful  consequences  of  sin  and  rebellion. 

To  relieve  or  deliver  from  this  condition,  there  was  no  help  in 
man — no  atonement  in  his  power  to  make.  Therefore,  if  saved 
at  all,  it  must  be  by  an  act  of  grace  or  favour  on  the  part  of 
God  ;  and  the  method,  together  with  the  means,  must  be  alto- 
gether of  his  appointment.  But  of  what  use  to  us  if  not  made 
known  ?  How  shall  ice  call  on  Him  in  xohom  we  have  not  believed^ 
and  how  shall  we  believe  on  Him  of  whom  we  have  not  heard,  and 
how  shall  loe  hear  without  a  preacher,  without  a  revelation  from 
God  1  Ponder  these  things,  ye  who  carelessly  neglect  the  word 
of  God  and  the  means  of  grace.  Commune  with  your  own 
hearts,  and  see  what  you  can  do,  or  what  you  can  hope  for 
without  this  help  from  heaven  ;  and  be  no  longer  faithless  but 
believing — no  longer  reject  the  counsel  of  God  against  your 
own  souls,  but  submit  yourselves  to  the  righteousness  of  God, 
which,  by  the  gospel,  is  now  manifested  without  the  law,  even 
that  righteousness  which  is  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  he 
that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already. 

I  come  now,  in  the 

III.  Third  place,  to  show  you  what  is  meant  by  believing  in 
Christ. 

And,  first,  it  is  to  believe  all  that  God  has  revealed  to  us  in 
the  Scriptures  ;  a  hearty,  humble  assent  to  the  truth  of  our  own 
condition  as  therein  made  known  to  us.  This  it  is  which  must 
prepare  the  way  for  our  recovery  from  the  power  of  sin  and 
Satan,  and  turn  our  views  to  God  ;  for  nothing  but  a  knowledge 
of  our  disease  can  bring  us  to  seek  a  remedy  against  it.  All 
that  we  can  perceive  with  our  outward  senses  speaks  to  us  of 
a  Power  supreme  and  invisible,  by  whom  all  things  are  created 
and  upheld,  and  in  lohom  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being. 
Our  relation  to  that  Being,  and  the  purpose  we  are  to  answer 
in  the  infinite  scale  of  his  works,  must  ever  be  a  subject  of 
anxious  thought  and  inquiry  to  a  reasonable  creature.  But 
whence  shall  we  derive  this  knowledge  unless  from  the  source 


342  A    WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS. 

of  all  wisdom,  and  goodness,  and  truth.  Surely  there  is  a  vein 
for  the  silver,  and  a  place  for  gold  ivhere  they  find  it.  Natural 
things,  those  which  are  outward  and  the  objects  of  our  senses, 
we  are  capable,  in  some  good  degree,  of  comprehending,  but  all 
beyond  is  darkness,  doubt,  and  conjecture.  Where,  then, 
shall  wisdom  he  found,  and  where  is  the  place  of  understanding  1 
JVIan  knoweth  not  the  price  thereof,  neither  is  it  found  in  the  land 
of  the  living.  Whence,  then,  but  by  revelation  can  we  compass 
ill  For  God  alone  under standeth  the  ivay  thereof,  and  koiveththe 
place  thereof.  To  him,  then,  alone  must  we  look,  and  from  him 
alone  can  we  receive  what  is  so  needful  to  our  present  comfort, 
so  encouraging  to  our  future  hopes.  For  all  that  our  internal 
senses,  the  active  power  of  our  souls  in  the  exercise  of  our 
rational  faculties  can  bring  us  to,  is,  the  deplorable  darkness  and 
ignorance  under  which  we  labour  respecting  spiritual  things, 
so  that  the  word  which  God  hath  revealed  to  us  by  his  Son  is 
no  less  the  subject  matter  of  faith  than  the  object  of  divine 
desire  to  every  considerate,  well  disposed  mind.  Hence,  we 
see,  my  hearers,  that  neglect  or  rejection  of  revelation  is  a  bar 
to  all  progress  or  advancement  in  the  way  of  salvation,  inasmuch 
as  it  is  equally  a  contempt  of  our  own  wants  and  of  God's 
mercy — of  the  reason  of  our  own  minds  and  of  the  truth  as  it 
is  in  Jesus.  And  hence  it  is,  that  so  many  are  delivered  over 
to  strong  delusion,  that  they  should  believe  a  lie,  in  some  inven- 
tion of  man  or  deceit  of  the  devil  to  the  ruin  of  their  souls — 
Who  believed  not  the  truth,  but  had  pleasure  in  unrighteousness. 
O  that  those  who  are  brave  enough  thus  to  risk  their  immortal 
souls  in  neglecting  this  great  salvation  would  but  consider  their 
folly  in  thinking  themselves  wiser  than  God,  and  better  able  to 
understand  his  will  and  purpose  in  the  salvation  of  sinners  than 
that  Word  which  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us,  and  hath 
plainly  showed  unto  us  the  way  of  salvation. 

Secondly,  it  is  so  to  believe  the  testimony  God  hath  given  of 
his  Son  in  the  Scriptures  of  truth,  as  to  rely  on  him  for  life  and 
salvation.  This  includes  in  it,  my  brethren,  a  reception  of 
Jesus  as  the  light  and  Ufe  of  men — as  the  word  and  wisdom  of 
God,  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth — 
the  great  atonement  for  our  lives  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross — 


A    WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS. 


343 


the  assurance  of  our  hope  in  the  triumph  of  his  resurrection — 
the  dependance  of  his  people  for  every  supply  of  spiritual  grace 
— the  only  Mediator  between  God  and  man — the  great  Inter- 
cessor through  whom  the  infirmity  of  our  prayers  and  the 
unworthiness  of  our  best  services  find  acceptance  with  God — 
the  Revealer  of  his  will  to  us  creatures — Lord  of  all  things — 
Judge  of  all  men — God  manifest  in  the  flesh  to  destroy  the 
works  of  the  devil.  With  these  commanding  claims  on  our 
attention,  the  gospel  invites  us  to  come  to  him — to  receive  him 
as  THE  Lord  our  Righteousness,  and  to  commit  our  souls, 
bodies,  and  spirits  to  his  love,  faithfulness,  and  power,  for  eternal 
life.  It  includes,  also,  a  renunciation  of  all  merit  or  deserving  on 
our  part,  from  any  righteousness  of  our  own ;  all  proud,  lofty 
endeavour  of  ourselves  to  please  God,  and  by  our  works  to  pur- 
chase salvation.  This  is  the  hard  saying  which  few  are  able  to 
hear — this  is  the  great  stumbling  block  to  the  pride  of  our  fallen 
nature,  but  it  is  the  very  entrance  to  salvation  by  grace  through 
faith.  For  if  righteousness  come  by  the  law — if  we  as  fallen  crea- 
tures can  answer  the  demands  of  the  law,  then  is  Christ  dead 
in  vain.  By  thus  going  about  to  establish  our  own  righteousness, 
we  rebel  against  that  righteousness  of  God's  appointment  which 
is  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  he  is  the  end  of  the  law  for 
righteousness  to  every  one  that  believeth  and  speaketh  on  this 
loise.  That  if  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  shalt  believe  hi  thine  heart  that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the 
dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved. 

Lastly,  it  is  heartily  and  steadily  to  obey  the  commands  of 
Christ  delivered  to  us  in  the  gospel. 

This  is  the  crown  of  the  whole,  the  only  evidence  we  can 
have  that  we  possess  the  faith  of  God's  elect,  the  saving  faith 
of  the  gospel,  which  unites  us  to  our  living  Head  as  branches  to 
the  vine,  and  derives  from  him  that  living  power  which  over- 
comes the  world  ;  that  spiritual  help  by  which  holiness  is  begun, 
maintained,  and  perfected  in  the  present  life,  making  us  meet 
for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light.  Any  other  notion  of 
faith,  my  hearers,  is  false  and  unscriptural — any  other  definition 
of  it  than  as  a  principle  of  love  and  obedience,  is  sure  to  cast 
those  who  entertain  it  into  all  the  danger  and  difficulty  of  anti- 


344 


A    WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS. 


nomian  delusion  or  Pharisaical  presumption.  Bare  abstract 
believing  can  save  no  man.  It  is  dead,  says  St.  James,  being 
alone;  which  is  fully  confirmed  by  John  the  Baptist's  declaration — 
He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  everlasting  life,  but  he  that 
believeth  not  the  Son  shall  not  see  life,  but  the  xorath  of  God  abideth 
on  him ;  that  is,  he  is  condemned  already,  because  he  hath  not 
believed  in  the  name  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  so  as  to 
keep  his  commandments. 

It  remains  to  apply  what  has  been  said. 

It  appears,  then,  my  hearers,  that  we  stand  in  the  situation 
of  condemned  criminals  reprieved  by  the  mercy  of  the  judge  ; 
that  the  present  life  is  to  determine  whether  the  original  sen- 
tence shall  be  executed  upon  us  or  not.  This  in  itself  is  more 
than  sufficient  to  stir  up  every  exertion  we  are  capable  of,  to 
escape  the  condemnation  we  labour  under.  But  when,  in  addi- 
tion to  this,  we  consider  that  the  compassion  of  God  and  love  of 
Christ  hath  provided,  not  only  for  our  escape  from  a  most  just 
sentence,  but  for  our  attainment  of  the  original  glory  and  blessed- 
ness from  which  sin  had  shut  us  out,  what  limit  should  there  be 
to  the  grateful  love  with  which  we  should  hear  and  receive  the 
glad  tidings  of  mercy  revealed  in  the  gospel,  to  that  willing 
obedience  we  should  render  to  what  is  required  of  us. 

Let  me  ask  you,  then — and  O  that  God  would  help  ypu  to  the 
true  answer — are  you  believers  or  not  in  the  name  of  the  only 
begotten  Son  of  God  1  On  the  answer  you  can  make  to  this 
important  question  depends  all  that  can  be  dear  to  you  in  time 
and  in  eternity.  Therefore,  let  me  exhort  you,  by  the  worth  of 
your  immortal  souls,  not  to  trifle  with  this  solemn  inquiry.  Many, 
it  is  to  be  feared,  have  built  up  for  themselves  some  unhallowed 
hope  in  which  they  speak  peace  to  themselves  while  there  is  no 
peace.  Careless  of  God's  revealed  word,  ignorant  of  the  true 
condition  of  human  nature,  and  of  the  terms  of  salvation  through 
faith  in  a  crucified  Saviour,  they  run,  blinded  by  their  own  folly 
and  presumption,  headlong  to  destruction.  To  such  let  the 
solemn  warning  of  my  text  be  a  word  in  season  this  day.  Against 
the  condemnation  therein  proclaimed  there  is  but  one  refuge, 
in  a  hearty  submission  to  God's  appointed  method  of  deliverance 
by  faith  in  that  Jesus  who  died,  the  just  for  the  unjust^  that  he 


A   WARNING    TO    UNBELIEVERS.  345 

itiight  bring  us  to  God.  Let  those  who  consent  in  general  to 
the  truth  of  revelation,  but  go  no  deeper  into  it  than  to  skim 
from  the  surface  a  vogue  and  indeterminate  trust  in  God's  mercy, 
Jearn  from  hence,  that  that  mercy  has  a  rule,  and  that  no  other- 
wise can  it  be  apphed  to  their  souls  than  by  a  real,  livipg,  and 
effectual  reception  of  the  truth,  to  the  renewal  and  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  life. 

To  those  who  trust  in  the  morality  of  their  lives — who  flatter 
themselves  that  they  do  no  harm — that  they  are,  upon  the  whole, 
better  than  others,  and  proudly  trust  in  their  own  righteousness, 
renouncing  it  only  in  words— let  the  words  of  my  text  give  a 
juster  view  of  themselves,  and  show  them  that  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
only  have  we  righteousness  and  strength.  That  until  we  are 
interested  in  him  by  the  faith  of  the  operation  of  God,  we  are 
condemned  and  helpless  aliens  from  God  and  without  a  hope  of 
his  mercy.  And  let  the  whole  tribe  of  careless,  thoughtless,  pray- 
erless,  world-hunting,  pleasure-loving  creatures  see  here  their 
true  condition.  Condemned  already,  and  wasting  the  precious 
moments  of  their  repiieve  in  treasuring  up  wrath  against  the  day 
of  xcrath.  O  that  God  would  now  be  pleased  to  touch  your 
hearts,  to  show  you  your  danger,  and  to  sanctify  his  true  and 
faithful  word  to  awaken  you  from  the  sleep  of  death,  before 
everlasting  ruin  sieze  upon  your  souls.     Amen. 


Vol.  IL— 4  4 


SERMON  XXXI. 

TBE    DANGER    OF    FORFEITING    THE    HEAVENLY    REST» 

Hebrews  iv.  ]. 

"  Let  us  therefore  fear,  lest  a  promise  being  left  us  of  entering  into  his  rest,  any  of 
you  should  seem  to  come  short  of  it." 

Whatsoever  things  were  written  aforetime^  were  written  for  our 
learning,  says  the  apostle  ;  the  volume  of  inspiration,  therefore, 
contains  all  that  is  wanted  by  us  for  instruction  in  righteousness. 
And  in  this  collection  of  the  experience  of  the  people  of  God 
in  past  ages,  we  see  as  in  a  glass,  my  brethren,  the  contest  of 
our  fallen  nature  with  divine  grace,  and  are  admonished,  both 
by  the  failure  and  success  of  those  who  have  gone  before  us,  to 
take  heed  to  ourselves,  and  to  increase  our  diligence,  in  making 
our  calling  and  election  sure.  But  more  particularly,  in  the 
dealings  of  God  with  the  children  of  Israel,  his  chosen  people, 
is  the  Christian  Church  admonished  to  take  heed,  lest  there  be 
in  any  of  its  members  on  evil  heart  of  unbelief  in  departing  from 
the  living  God,  either  by  perverting  the  doctrines,  or  by  de|  art- 
ing  from  the  j)recepts  of  the  gospel.  For,  says  the  same  apostle, 
all  these  things  happened  unto  them  for  ensamples ;  and  they  are 
written  for  our  admonition,  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are 
come. 

Very  frequent,  therefore,  are  the  allusions  made  in  the  New: 
Testament  to  the  fate  and  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  people  ;  and 
in  this  epistle,  addressed  expressly  to  persons  of  that  nation, 
who  had  embraced  Christianity,  does  their  countryman,  St. 
Paul,  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews  and  an  Jiposlle  of  Jesus 
Christ,  point  out  the  close  connexion  of  the  two  dispensations, 
and  establish  the  superior  dignity  and  importance  of  the  gospel, 
both  in  its  helps  and  in  its  promises.  In  the  chapter  immedi- 
ately preceding  that  from  which  my  text  is  taken,  having  drawn 
a  comparison  between  the  promises  made  through  Moses  to  the 


THE  DANGER  OF  FORFEITING  THE  HEAVENLY  REST.   347 

Israelites,  as  the  peculiar  people  of  God,  of  a  temporal  inherit- 
ance, and  of  a  pi^aceful  and  honourable  rest  In  the  land  of 
Canaan,  on  condition  of  their  obedience  to  the  divine  com- 
mands; and  the  assurances  which  Christ  gives  in  the  gospel,  to 
his  faithful  followers,  of  an  eternal  inheritance  and  glorious  rest 
in  the  heavenly  Canaan; — and  having  shown  that  the  Israelites, 
by  their  unbelief  and  rebellion  against  God,  had  forfeited  the 
promised  rent,  and  were  condenmed  to  wander  as  outcasts,  and 
and  to  die  in  the  wilderness  ;  he  draws  from  this  very  noted 
circumstance  in  the  history  of  that  people,  not  only  here,  but  in 
many  other  passages  of  his  writings,  a  warning  to  Christians, 
lest  they  also,  after  the  same  example  of  imbelief  should  forfeit 
the  heavenly  rest  and  inheritance  promised  to  them  as  the 
children  of  God,  by  faJth  in  Christ  Jesus.  Hence  the  great 
importance  of  the  exhortation  in  my  text.  Let  us  Christians, 
also  fear,  lest  we  forfeit  the  hi^h  |)rivileges  and  unspeakable 
blessings  promised  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  a  like 
disobedience  and  rebellion  against  the  Captain  of  our  salvation. 

God  has  indeed  callfd  us,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  to  a 
gloiious  hope  of  everlasting  lite  and  happiness,  through  our 
blessefl  Redeemer.  He  has  given  us  all  reasonable  certainty  and 
assurance,  that  we  shall  in  due  time  be  made  partakers  of  it ; 
but  there  are  conditions  required  on  our  part,  both  to  qualify  us 
for  and  to  entitle  us  to  this  happiness.  And  if,  as  did  the 
Israelites,  we  foil  to  fulfil  them,  we  shall,  like  them,  find  our 
expectations  cut  otf,  and  a  far  sorer  punishment  incurred,  in 
proportion  as  the  high  discoveries  of  the  gospel  exceed  the 
shadows  of  the  legal  dispensation. 

That  we  may  come  short  of  it,  as  they  did,  is  not  only  possible, 
but  greatly  to  be  feared,  for  two  reasons.  One  is,  that  we  are 
men  of  like  passions  with  those  who  have  gone  before  us — of  the 
same  fallen  nature,  and  exposed  to  the  same  temptations.  The 
other  is,  that  failure,  as  well  as  success,  is  inseparable  from  a 
state  of  trial,  sucii  as  the  present  life. 

That  we  may  succeed,  is  not  only  possible,  but  the  highest 
assurance  is  given,  that  succes'j  is  attainable  if  we  strive  for  it. 
First,  from  the  invitations  of  the  gospel.  For  God  cannot 
nijck  and  delude  his  creaiures  with   oifers  of  an  impossible 


S48  THE  DANGER  OF  FORFEITING 

attainment.     And  secondly,  from  the  effectual  provision  made 
therefor,  by  the  operation  and  assistance  of  divine  grace. 

That  God  has  left  us  a  promise  of  entering  into  his  rest,  and 
graciously  provided  the  means  whereby  it  may  be  attained,  is 
the  only  ground  on  which  exertion  and  endeavour  can  be  put 
forth  by  rational  beings,  under  a  state  of  probation.  Break  in 
upon  this  piinciple  by  any  modification  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
gospel,  and  you  at  once  render  religion,  or  the  love  and  service 
of  God  with  accountability,  impossible  to  man,  as  a  moral 
being.  Whatever  our  blessed  Saviour  did  or  suffered  whilst  he 
was  upon  earth,  or  has  commanded  us  to  do  or  to  suffer  after 
his  example  ;  all  the  precepts,  all  the  promises,  all  the  threat- 
enings,  all  the  discoveries  of  the  gospel ;  are  but  one  continued 
argument  to  convince  men  of  this  truth,  and  to  engage  them  to 
act  upon  it.  If  there  be  no  such  thing  as  another  life  after  this, 
in  which  we  shall  receive  the  everlasting  reward  of  faith  and 
obedience,  or  suffer  the  eternal  punishment  of  sin  and  unbelief, 
then  the  whole  business  of  religion  is  an  illusion.  Let  us  eat 
and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die.  But  if  there  be  another  life, 
then  does  religion  stand  forth  as  the  one  thing  needful,  and 
calls  upon  all  to  whom  the  knowledge  of  this  great  salvation  is 
vouchsafed,  to  ask  themselves,  What  shall  the  end  he  of  those 
who  knoio  not  God,  and  obey  not  the  gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  1  Let  us  therefore  fear,  lest  a  promise  being  left  us  of 
entering  into  his  rest,  any  of  you  should  seem  to  come  short  of  ii. 

In  discoursing  on  these  words,  I  shall,  in  the 

First  place,  endeavour  to  show  you  the  greatness  and  the 
certainty  of  the  reward  promised  hereafter  to  the  righteous. 

Secondly,  what  good  reason  the  apostle  had  to  exhort 
Christians  to  fear  lest  they  should  forfeit  it. 

Thirdly,  I  shall  conclude  with  an  application  of  the  subject. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  show  the  greatness  and  the  certainty  of  the 
reward  promised  hereafter  to  the  righteous. 

This,  though  a  subject  never  to  be  fully  apprehended  by  us 
until  we  come  to  the  enjoyment  of  it,  is,  nevertheless,  very 
necessary  and  profitable  to  be  frequently  in  our  thoughts,  my 
brethren,  in  order  to  animate  and  encourage  us  to  hold  fast  the 
beginning  of  our  confidence  steadfast  unto  the  end.     The  person 


THE    HEAVENLY    REST.  349 

who  seldom  meditates  upon  heaven,  and  upon  the  reward  laid 
up  for  the  righteous,  will  soon  cease  to  strive  for  the  crown  of 
glory,  and  soon  be  taken  captive  by  the  world  and  its  delights. 
The  affections  cannot  long  remain  unoccupied,  and  if  no  pains 
are  taken  to  direct  them  to  better  things,  they  will  fix  themselves 
according  to  the  corrupt  and  perverted  bias  which  sin  has  pro- 
duced in  all  our  inclinations.  It  is  not,  indeed,  for  me  to  speak 
as  with  knowledge  of  those  excellent  and  glorious  things  which 
are,  as  yet,  the  objects  not  of  sense  but  of  faith.  Even  St.  Paul 
himself,  though  caught  up  into  paradise,  and  admitted  to  the 
nearest  contemplation  of  them — to  what  no  mortal  man  but  him- 
self ever  enjoyed— yet  all  that  inspiration  enabled  him  to  say  on 
this  unutterable  subject  was,  to  declare,  that  eye  had  not  seen, 
nor  ear  heard,  neither  had  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to  con- 
eeive  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him. 
But  notwithstanding  this  is  so,  yet — as  in  speaking  of  God  him- 
self, though  we  cannot  fully  compn-hend  the  divine  nature,  yet 
by  putting  together  the  highest  ideas  we  can  form  of  his  infinite 
perfections  as  revealed  to  us  in  the  Scriptures,  we  can  raise  in 
our  souls  some  suitable  though  faint  apprehensions  of  the 
glory  and  excellency  of  the  divine  character — so  here  also,  it 
has  pleased  our  good  and  gracious  God  to  give  us  such  general 
descriptions  of  the  everlasting  rest  as  may  suffice  to  warm  our 
hearts  with  longing  desires  for  it,  and  to  quicken  our  endeavours 
to  diligence  and  perseverance  in  the  attainment  of  it.  And 
this  he  has  done,  as  most  suitable  to  our  clouded  and  limited 
faculties,  chiefly  by  the  contrast  of  our  present  condition. 

Here  we  live  in  a  vale  of  misery  surrounded  by  sin  and  sorrow, 
and  only  measuring  the  good  by  its  exemption  from  evil.  From 
the  cradle  to  the  grave,  life  is  one  unceasing  effort  to  fence  off 
the  miseries  which  our  own  sinful  propensities  bring  upon  us, 
or  which  are  occasioned  by  the  wickedness  of  others,  while 
disease  and  suffering  in  ourselves  or  in  those  nearest  to  our 
affections  break  in  upon  our  partial  enjoyments,  and  death, 
either  near  at  hand  or  in  the  distance,  marks  the  sum  of  earthly 
good  with  such  a  transitory  character  as  thoughtlessness  alone 
can  esteem.  But  in  heaven,  as  the  word  of  God  teaches  us, 
there  will  be  a  perfect  deliverance  from  all  trouble.     No  pains 


S50  THE  DANGER  OF  FORFEITING 

or  diseases,  no  weakness  or  infirmity,  shall  affect  our  incor- 
ruptible bodies  ;  no  lusts  or  passions,  no  iriegular  or  inordinate 
desires,  shall  discompose  our  souls.  For  sin,  the  cause  of  all 
our  present  misery,  shall  be  shut  out  for  ever  from  the  abodes 
of  the  righteous,  and  with  it  whatever  can  possibly  defeat,  or 
even  interrupt,  the  pure  and  unmixed  felicity  which  flows  from 
the  presence  of  God. 

Here  we  live,  my  brethren,  in  a  continual  warfare  with  our 
spiritual  enemies.  Temptations  surround  and  assault  us  on 
every  side  ;  the  flesh  lusting  against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit 
against  the  flesh,  so  that  it  is  a  continual  stiuggle  between  our 
desires  and  our  duty.  But  heaven  is  a  place  as  innocent  as  it 
is  glorious.  There  no  temptation  will  draw  us  from  our  duty 
or  render  it  painful  in  the  performance,  but  it  will  be  the  eager 
bent  and  desire  of  our  souls  to  perform  the  pure  and  perfect 
will  of  God.  There  it  will  be  not  only  our  employment  but  our 
delight,  unceasingly  to  adore  and  worship  the  infinite  perfections 
of  our  God  and  Saviour,  continually  manifested  to  our  ravished 
view — to  praise  and  magnify  his  holy  name  for  the  redemption 
of  our  souls  from  everlasting  death,  and  for  conferring  upon  us 
such  a  state  of  happiness  and  glory. 

Here  we  live  in  the  continual  expectation,  that  death  will 
soon,  and  we  know  not  how  soon,  put  an  end  to  the  enjoy- 
ments this  world  can  bestow.  But  in  heaven  no  such  appre- 
hension shall  be  known.  In  the  heavenly  rest  there  shall  be 
no  more  death,  no  change  or  decay,  no  end  or  abatement  of 
bliss  for  ever  and  ever. 

Oh!  what  heartfelt  thanksgivings  to  God  and  the  Lamb — what 
loud  hosannas  of  praise,  will  spring  from  the  lips  of  the  redeem- 
ed when  faith  shall  be  lost  in  sight,  and  hope  swallowed  up  in 
enjoyment ;  when  eye  to  eye,  and  face  to  face,  my  brethren,  we 
behold  that  Jesus  who  laid  down  his  life  for  our  souls,  and 
bought  with  his  own  most  precious  blood  this  rich  inheritance  of 
endless  glory  for  us,  lost  and  ruined  sinners  !  Oh  !  what  joy  and 
gladness  when  long  separated  friends  meet  to  part  no  more — 
when  the  remembrance  of  past  sorrows  will  increase  the  sense 
of  present  bliss,  and  inflame  every  heart  and  inspire  every 
tongue  to   ascribe  to  Him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne,  and  to  the 


THE    HEAVENLT    REST.  851 

Lamb,  blessing,  and  glory,  and  honour,  and  power  for  ever  ! 
Oh  !  what  a  glorious  ineeling,  my  dear  brethren,  when  we  come 
to  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  lo  an  innumerable  company  of 
angels,  to  the  general  assembly  and  church  of  the  firstborn  which 
are  written  in  heaven,  and  to  God  the  Judge  of  all,  and  to  the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the  mediator  of  the 
new  covenant — when  from  the  church  militant  we  become  mem- 
bers of  the  church  triumphant,  and  receiving  the  end  of  our 
faith,  even  the  salvation  of  our  souls,  find  all  that  we  now  see 
as  through  a  glass  darkly  realized,  and  exceeding  the  utmost 
stretch  of  imagination.  Who  is  not  athirst  for  such  pure,  and 
glorious,  and  lasting  enjoyments  1  Who  is  not  willing  to  ex- 
change the  fleeting,  unsatisfying  vanities  of  the  world  for  the 
rest  that  reinaiiieth  to  the  people  of  God  1  O  ye  deluded,  sin- 
deceived  souls,  who,  for  a  portion  in  this  life,  barter  away  your 
birthright ;  who,  for  the  perishing  riches,  honours,  and  [jleasures 
of  fl:e  world  make  light  of  the  uns-earchahle  riches  of  Chrjst; 
awake,  and  consider  your  ways — ask  yourselves  about  eternity, 
about  death  and  judgment,  about  heaven  and  hell — inquire  what 
your  present  pursuits  are  doing  for  your  souls,  and  where  you 
would  take  your  rest  were  God  this  night  to  require  them  of 
you — think  of  the  worm  that  never  dies,  of  the  fire  that  never 
shall  never  be  quenched.  Contrast  these  with  the  fulness  of 
joy  which  the  presence  of  God  sheds  over  the  mansions  of  rest 
and  blessedness,  and  ask  your  souls  what  will  it  profit  to  gala 
this  world  and  all  it  has  to  bestow,  if  in  exchange  heaven  must 
be  surrendered  1 

And  let  those  who,  by  their  Christian  profession,  say  plainly 
that  they  seek  a  better  country,  treasure  up  in  their  hearts  the 
greatness  and  the  certainty  of  their  reward,  as  the  great  pre- 
servative against  coming  short  of  it.  Set  your  affections  on 
things  above,  my  brethren,  and  let  the  frequent  contemplation 
strengthen  you  to  put  down  those  worldly  lusts  which  war 
against  the  soul,  and  animate  you  to  watch  and  pray,  to  wrestle 
and  strive,  to  do,  and  even  lo  suffer,  according  to  the  will  of 
God  that  you  may  reap  a  full  reward.  Let  not  the  baubles  of 
the  world  despoil  you  of  your  heavenly  crown. 

But  a  little  while,  and  He  that  shall  come,  will  come  to  gather 


852  THE  DANGER  OF  FORFEITING 

you  to  himself.  But  a  little  while,  and  the  strife  and  turmoil  of 
this  sinful  world  will  be  over,  and  rest  and  peace,  repose  and 
safety,  endless,  undisturbed,  and  increasing,  be  your  rich  reward. 
This  is  the  rest,  however  faintly  1  have  described  it,  of  which 
my  text  speaks,  which  is  provided  for  the  people  of  God,  and 
of  which  we  shall  be  made  partakers  if  we  live  here  answerably 
to  such  glorious  expectations.  But  it  may  be  forfeited,  my 
text  tells  us.  In  various  ways  we  may  come  short  of  it,  and 
this  the  apostle  urges  as  a  ground  of  caution  to  Christians. 

Let  us  therefore  fear,  lest  a  promise  being  left  us  of  entering 
into  his  rest,  any  of  you  should  seem  to  come  short  of  it.  I 
will,  therefore, 

II,  Secondly,  endeavour  to  show,  what  good  reason  the 
apostle  had  to  exhort  Chri.stians  to  fear,  lest  they  should  forfeit  it. 

If  our  first  parents,  in  the  integrity  of  their  moral  powers, 
declined  from  God,  and,  by  yielding  to  temptation,  forfeited  the 
happy  condition  in  which  they  were  placed  by  their  Creator, 
what  have  not  we,  theii  corrupt  and  sinful  progeny,  wiih  broken 
powers  and  perverted  wills,  to  fear — lest  we  also  fail  in  the  triaf 
granted  us  by  the  divine  compassion,  to  regain  the  inheritance 
forfeited  by  sin— lest  we  also  abuse  the  grace  given  us  in  our 
Redeemer,  Christ  Jesus,  and  come  short  of  our  high  calling 
of  God  in  him  ! 

If  the  Israelites,  under  a  dispensation  of  religion  which  pre- 
sented its  proofs  and  its  sanctions  to  their  senses,  gave  way  to 
unbelief — if  the  miraculous  food  and  drink  which  followed  them 
in  all  their  wanderings  in  the  wilderness,  and  hourly  reminded 
them  of  that  God,  whose  voice  they  heard  and  whose  presence 
was  manifested  in  the  mount  that  burned  with  fire,  proved 
unequal  to  restrain  the  corrupt  propensities  of  a  sinful  nature  m 
them,  with  good  reason  is  the  Christian,  under  a  dispensation 
whose  sanctions  are  discerned  by  faith  only,  exhorted  to  work 
out  his  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling,  and  to  be  diligent  and 
watchful,  lest  through  carelessness  or  neglect,  through  love  of 
the  world,  or  the  prevalence  of  any  other  corruption,  he  forfeit 
the  heavenly  rest. 

If  the  promises  of  God  were  absolute  and  unconditional, 
and  religious  attainment  independent  on  any  exertions  of  our 


THE    HEAVENLY    REST.  353 

own,  all  fear  of  the  event  would  be  useless,  and  all  exhortation 
to  caution  and  watchfulness  would  be  superfluous.  But  when 
this  is  not  the  case,  when  the  whole  tenour  of  Scripture  as  well 
as  the  reason  of  the  thing  demonstrates,  that  the  promises  of 
God  to  his  people  are  all  conditional,  that  there  are  duties  to  be 
performed  on  their  part  in  order  to  obtain  the  reward  promised 
on  God's  part,  they  cannot  be  too  frequently  or  too  earnestly 
exhorted  to  bear  continually  in  mind,  that  loe  are  made  partakers 
0/ Christ  if  we  holdfast  the  he  ginning  of  our  confidence  steadfast 
unto  the  end — that  he  that  endureth  to  the  end  the  same  shall  be 
saved,  and  that  God  declares,  if  any  man  draw  back,  my  soul  shall 
have  no  pleasure  in  him. 

God  has  plainly  set  before  us  the  terms  of  our  salvation— what 
we  are  to  believe,  and  what  we  are  to  do,  if  we  hope  to  attain 
it.  Should  not  we,  therefore,  my  hearers,  who  are  born  and 
raised  under  the  light  and  privileges  of  the  gospel,  be  very  care- 
ful not  to  come  short  of  the  high  reward  therein  offered  us,  by 
suffering  any  present  interests  or  temptations  to  draw  us  aside 
from  our  duty  1  Yet  we  see  thousands  in  this  Christian  land 
acting  as  carelessly  respecting  eternity  as  if  its  happy  attain- 
ment depended  on  the  neglect  of  religious  duty.  Surely,  then, 
there  is  not  only  good  but  great  reason  to  exhort  such  persons 
to  consider,  how  vain  the  hope  must  be  of  the  favour  of  Goo 
and  eternal  life,  if  they  persist  in  a  course  of  sin  and  disregard 
of  the  gospel.  No  one  can  possibly  have  any  pretensions  to 
sincerity  who  professes  to  believe  the  gospel,  and  yet  openly 
neglects  the  appointments  of  religion.  There  is  something  in 
the  very  sound  of  an  eternal  reward  or  punishment — believed 
in — that  forbids  the  desperate  risk  ;  and  yet  there  are  multitudes 
who,  because  they  are  friendly  to  religion  as  it  is  called,  flatter 
themselves  with  the  hope  of  acceptance  through  the  merits  of 
the  Saviour,  and  expect  to  gain  the  eternal  reward  without  the 
self-denials  and  surrenders  of  religion.  Now  what  is  to  with- 
stand this  delusion  but  the  exhortations  derived  from  the 
revealed  danger,  that  we  way  fail  of  the  grace  of  God,  that  we 
must  sow  if  we  expect  to  reap,  that  we  must  labour  and  strive 
if  we  would  gain  a  crown  of  life,  and  that  we  must  openly 
confess  Christ  before  the  world  if  we  hope  to  be  owned  by 

Vol.  II.— 46 


854  THE  DANGER  OF  FORFEITING 

him  before  his  Father  and  the  holy  angels  in  the  great  day  of 
account. 

If  men  can  be  saved  without  the  sacraments  of  religion, 
where  opportunity  is  had  for  their  reception,  it  would  be  very 
dilhcult  to  account  for  their  being  so  very  solemnly  enacted, 
and  so  very  reverently  esteemed,  and  profitably  used  by  all 
truly  pious  persons.  Yet  there  are  multitudes  of  these  friends 
to  religion,  who  come  to  their  death -bed  with  their  baptismal 
vows  broken,  their  repentance  unacknowledged,  and  their  faith 
unprofessed  over  the  broken  body  and  shed  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ,  evidently  set  forth  crucified  among  or  before  them,  in 
the  Holy  Communion,  as  the  appointed  memorial  of  his  death. 
And  is  there  no  danger  that  such  should  come  short  of  the  rest 
he  hath  purchased  for  them  1  no  good  reason  why  such  should 
be  warned  and  exhorted,  lest  they  be  found  in  the  nuujber  to 
whom  Christ  will  say,  /  never  knew  you.  Alas  !  my  dear 
hearers,  trifle  not  thus  with  your  souls  ;  waste  not  your  day  of 
grace  in  vain  and  unfounded  expectations,  but  learn  to  fear  that 
you  may  fail,  that  thus  you  may  be  stirred  up  to  enter  in  at  the 
strait  gate,  and  to  walk  in  the  narrow  way, which  leadeth  unto  life. 
And  even  among  professors  of  religion — among  those  who  con- 
fess the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  before  men,  as  their  only  hope  of 
the  heavenly  rest,  is  it  needful  and  profitable  to  remind  them  that 
if  they  would  enter  into  life,  they  must  keep  the  commandments, 
that  they  must  stir  up  the  gift  of  God  that  is  in  them,  and 
return  their  Lord's  goods — his  heavenly  grace,  and  providen- 
tial condition  in  the  world — with  increase,  otherwise  they  will 
come  short  of  their  high  calling,  and  take  their  portion  with 
the  unprofitable  servant.  My  dear  brethren,  the  world  is 
against  you,  your  own  hearts  are  against  you,  the  enemy 
of  God  and  man  is  against  you  !  Is  there  not,  then,  good 
reason  to  fear  these  potent  adversaries,  so  as  to  increase 
your  caution  and  watchfulness,  lest  they  betray  you  into  some 
snare  and  entangle  you  in  their  deceits,  and  thus  prevail  agaitist 
your  hope,  by  blinding  you  against  the  danger  of  coming  short 
of  it  1  St.  Paul  thought  it  very  necessary  to  give  this  caution, 
even  to  primitive  Christians  ;  and  experience  must  surely  teach 
us,  that  it  is  yet  a  word  in  season.      And  it  will  be  a  word  in 


THE     HEAVENLY     REST.  S62> 

season  to  all  who  so  learn  from  it  to  distrust  themselves,  as  to 
cleave  closer  and  closer  to  their  great  and  effectual  defence  in 
the  Loud  Jesus  Christ  ;  and  in  obedience  to  his  hoh*  com- 
mandments, and  blessed  example,  so  pass  the  time  of  their 
sojourning  here,  in  fear,  as  to  increase  their  diligence  and 
earnestness,  that  when  their  Lord  cometh  he  may  find  them  ready, 
with  their  loins  girded  about  and  their  lights  burning. 

Thus  have  1  showed  3'ou,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  what 
good  reason  the  apostle  had  to  exhort  Christians  to  fear,  lest 
they  should  forfeit  the  heavenly  rest.  And  the  application  I 
wish  to  make  of  what  has  been  said,  is,  to  increase  the  care  and 
diligence  of  professors  of  religion,  in  working  out  their  eternal 
salvation  ;  to  strengthen  and  encourage  the  feeble  and  the  timid 
to  stay  themselves  upon  the  living  God  ;  and  to  awaken  the 
careless,  of  every  description,  from  the  dreadful  delusion  of 
meeting  with  unasked  mercy,  and  of  obtaining  unsought  salva- 
tion. 

My  professing  brethren,  we  stand  on  trial,  from  first  to  last, 
as  believers  in  Chkist;  and  can  no  otherwise  secure  the  crown 
of  life  and  glory,  than  by  giving  all  diligence  to  make  our  calling 
and  election  sure.  As  accountable  beings  we  have  each  of  us 
his  own  part  to  perform,  his  particular  talent  to  improve.  As 
fallen,  sinful  creatures,  our  sufficiency  for  all  spiritual  attain- 
ment is  of  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  are 
saved  by  grace.  And  because  of  this  sufficiency  conferred  upon 
all  mankind,  it  is,  that  we  are  capable  of  religion,  and  shall  be 
rewarded  or  punished  everlastingly,  according  to  our  conduct 
in  the  present  life.  On  this,  there  is  no  discretion  to  any.  He 
that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already,  and  he  that  believeth  shall 
be  judged  by  the  word  spoken  unto  him  in  the  gospel.  As 
believers,  the  word  of  God  is  your  only  standard  ;  by  that  you 
must  measure  your  hope,  and  try  the  foundation  on  which  it  is 
built ;  by  that  you  must  examine  your  life,  and  determine  its 
conformity  to  the  divine  pattern,  in  the  man  Christ  Jesus. 
Short  of  this,  your  hope  cannot  be  such  as  will  stand  the  trial 
of  the  great  day. 

Now,  in  this  standard,  the  prize  and  the  forfeit  are  plainly 
set  before  you;  the  road  you  have  to  travel  clearly  marked  out ; 


356  THE    DANGER    OF    FORFEITING 

the  dangers  and  the  difficulties  you  have  to  encounter  are 
distinctly  set  forth  ;  the  help  you  may  look  for  is  openly  pro- 
claimed ;  aiul,  to  quicken  your  diiig-ence,  God  hath  warned  you 
that  such  is  the  woful  corruption  of  your  nature,  that  you  may, 
nevertheless,  miss  ihe  prize  of  your  Iiigh  calling,  and  come  short 
of  the  heavenly  rest.  What  becomes  us,  then,  my  brethren, 
under  such  circumstances,  but  that  fear,  and  care,  and  jealousy 
of  ourselves,  which  shall  produce  a  more  unreserved  surrender 
of  heart  and  life  to  the  power  and  grace  of  our  ever  merciful 
Redeemer,  Without  Him  ice  can  do  nothing,  but  in  his  name 
and  strength  all  things  are  possible  to  the  believer.  Keep  con- 
tinually before  you,  therefore,  your  reward  and  your  duty,  your 
danger  and  your  help,  and,  with  St.  Paul,  do  this  one  thing — 
Forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  the 
things  that  are  before,  press  toward  the  mark  ;  counting  all  things 
but  loss,  that  you  may  loin  Christ,  and  be  found  in  him.,  and 
receive  the  joyful  salutation  of  loell  done  good  and  faithful 
servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  ihy  Lord. 

And  let  the  feeble  and  the  timid  believer,  who  is  conscious  of 
the  power  of  his  corruptions,  derive  courage  to  contend  against 
them,  from  the  promises  of  God.  He  hath  laid  help  for  you, 
my  brethren,  on  one  icho  is  mighty  and  able  to  save  ;  upon  one 
who  will  not  break  the  bruised  reed  nor  quench  the  smoking 
flax  ;  who  laid  down  his  life  for  your  souls,  that,  by  this  proof  of 
unbounded  love,  he  might  draw  all  men  to  God. 

He  that  spared  not  his  own  Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all, 
how  shall  he  not  xcilh  him  also  freely  give  us  all  things.  Where' 
fore  lift  up  the  hands  which  hang  cloivn,  and  the  feeble  knees ; 
being  persuaded  of  this  one  thing,  that  he  loho  hath  begun  a  good 
work  in  you  will  carry  it  on  unto  the  day  of  Christ. 

A  knowledge  of  your  weakness,  my  brethren,  is  the  best 
security  against  presumption,  and  the  strongest  argument  for 
watchfulness  and  increased  earnestness  in  prayer.  Let  distrust 
of  yourselves,  then,  bring  you  nearer  to  God  for  grace  to  help 
in  time  of  need  ;  and  his  strength  shall  be  made  perfect  in  your 
weakness,  and  the  work  of  faith  be  fulfilled  with  power. 

Lastly,  let  the  fear  here  spoken  of,  from  the  awful  possibility, 
yea,  from  the  plain  and  obvious  danger,  that  men  may  receive 


THE    HEAVENLir  REST.  357 

the  grace  of  God  in  vain,  and  even  Christians,  God's  peculiar 
people,  come  short  of  the  reward  promised  to  faith  and  obedi- 
ence, be  a  word  in  season  to  all  who  have  hitherto  been  careless 
and  unconcerned  about  their  souls.  If  the  righteous  scarcely 
be  saved,  lohere  shall  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear  1  This 
is  a  question  which  all  who  hear  me  can  answer  and  apply  to 
themselves.  Gon  grant  that  it  may  awaken  them  to  the  danger 
of  delay,  on  so  momentous  an  interest  as  their  eternal  condi- 
tion. Fools,  it  is  said,  make  a  mock  at  sin ;  but  what  name 
must  those  deserve  who  make  a  mock  at  salvation,  and  spurn 
from  their  regard  an  everlasting  inheritance  of  heavenly  glory  ! 
Merciful  God  !  rend  the  veil  from  their  hearts,  by  the  convincing 
power  of  thy  Holy  Spirit.  Let  not  thy  word  return  unto 
thee  empty,  but  bless  thy  truth  that  it  may  be  fruitful  to  thy 
praise,  in  hearts  awakened  to  thy  fear,  and  encouraged  to 
cleave  to  thy  grace  in  working  out  their  everlasting  salvation. 


SERMON  XXXII. 


THE    RULE    OF    FUTURE    JUDGMENT. 


Matthew  vii.  21. 

^' Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 

The  discoveries  of  the  gospel  are  of  a  very  awful  and  inter- 
esting character,  my  brethren,  and  very  closely  allied  to  the 
original  and  better  impressions  of  our  own  hearts.  There  is 
no  one,  I  presume,  who  has  not  at  some  time,  perhaps  very 
frequently,  found  his  thoughts  drawn  out  to  a  future  state  of 
being,  and  his  mind  engaged,  however  tiansiently,  on  his  own 
personal  condition  in  another  world.  And  whoever  has  attended 
to  his  own  experience,  even  thus  far,  must  have  some  percep- 
tion of  the  great  uncertainty  of  all  conclusions  of  a  future 
state,  derived  from  the  resources  of  human  wisdom  ;  and  be  also 
aware  of  the  strong  propensity  in  human  nature  to  swerve  from 
the  express  declarations  of  the  divine  word,  and  bring  down 
the  standard  of  salvation  to  the  'convenience  or  the  caprice  of 
its  own  corrupt  inclinations. 

To  be  furnished,  then,  against  all  doubt  and  uncertainty  on 
so  near  a  concern  as  our  everlasting  existence,  ought  surely  to 
be  considered  a  great  blessing,  and  a  ground  of  the  deepest 
thankfulness,  by  every  rational  being  ;  and  should  form  the  onl}'' 
foundation  of  their  hopes,  and  of  their  duties  under  those  hopes. 
But  while  this  will  no  doubt  be  admitted  by  all  who  hear  me,  I 
fear  it  must  also  be  admitted,  that  this  heaven-granted  help  to 
our  severest  necessity,  has  not  been  thus  generally  applied; 
that  very  few,  comparatively  speaking,  have  so  brought  their 
personal  condition  to  this  standard,  as  to  have  formed  their  expec- 
tations for  hereafter  solely  upon  what  it  makts  known  to  all  as 
the  fixed  and  unchangeable  determination  of  the  Ruler  of  the 


THE  RULE  OP  FUTURE  JUDGMENT.  S59 

Universe,  in  dispensing  the  rewards  and  the  punishments   of 
eternity. 

It  is  a  near  and  an  inevitable  interest,  my  dear  friends,  to 
which  God  calls  your  attention,  and  for  which  he  hath  made 
such  wonderful  provision,  that  it  may  be  glorious  to  him  and 
happy  to  you.  But  it  can  be  so  no  otherwise  than  in  conformity 
with  those  great  princi[)les  of  his  moral  government,  revealed 
in  his  word,  which  shall  exhibit  him  to  the  universe  of  men  and 
angels,  glorious  in  holiness  and  excellent  in  mercy ;  long  suflfer- 
ing  and  gracious  to  a  race  of  sinners,  yet  inexorable  against 
sin  persisted  in,  against  the  honour  of  his  law,  and  the  manifes- 
tation of  his  love.  God  cannot  save  sinners,  who  die  such. 
Salvation  must  be  wrought  out  in  the  present  life,  by  a  death 
unto  sin  and  new  birth  unto  righteousness  ;  and  fruhs  meet  for 
repentance  and  faith  must  manifest  the  reality  of  those  evan- 
gelical graces  in  our  conversation  in  this  world,  if  we  hope  for 
their  reward  in  another  state  of  being.  This  is  the  clear  and 
reasonable  doctrine  of  the  religion  which  the  Son  of  God  taught 
in  person,  and  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  recorded  in  the 
Scriptures  of  truth,  for  our  learning. 

Yet  clear  and  reasonable  as  it  is,  what  multitudes  in  the 
present  day,  as  at  the  beginning,  venture  to  overlook  or  to  disre- 
gard this  authority  and  to  risk  eternity,  either  with  no  prepara- 
tion, or  with  a  false  or  hypocritical  one.  Many  will  say  to  me 
in  that  day.  Lord  !  Lord  !  Many  will  be  ready  and  desirous  to 
acknowledge  Christ  the  Judge,  who  could  not  be  prevailed 
upon  to  confess  the  crucified  Jesus  before  the  world.  Many 
will  say  to  me  in  that  day — Lord,  we  have  eaten  and  drunk  in  thy 
presence,  and  thou  hast  taught  in  our  streets.  Many  will  be 
desirous  to  claim  an  alliance  with  the  King  of  heaven  upon  the 
unimproved  privileges  oi"  Christian  birth,  or  the  mere  profeshion 
of  an  unfruitful  faith.  Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day — Lord, 
Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy  name,  and  in  thy  name  have 
cast  out  devils,  and  in  thy  name  done  many  wonderful  works  ? 
Many  who  call  themselves  his  ministers,  will  be  confident  of 
being  recognized  by  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  in  the  day 
of  judgment,  upon  false  pretences  to,  and  corrupt  departure 
from,  his  pure  and  undefiled  religion  as  it  was  taught  and  prac- 


360         THE  RULE  OF  FUTURE  JUDGMENT. 

tised  by  his  blessed  apostles.  But  my  text  tells  us  it  will  be  in 
vain.  The  description  is  sadly  prophetic,  my  brethren,  of  the 
awful  consequences  of  those  corruptions  and  divisions  which 
deform,  and  impede  the  gospel.  And  my  text  is  the  warning 
which  now  addresses  itself  to  me  and  to  you,  lest  that  day  come 
upon  us  with  a  false  profession  and  an  unfounded  hope,  unpro- 
vided to  abide  its  trial  and  escape  its  doom.  But  it  is  not  only 
the  warning,  it  is  the  direction  also,  to  shun  the  danger,  and 
escape  the  ruin,  which  it  denounces  alike  against  the  careless 
and  the  presumptuous. 

JVof  every,  one  that  saith  unto  me  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  hut  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father, 
which  is  in  heaven. 

In  discoursing  on  which  words,  I  shall  endeavour  to  explain, 
in  the 

First  place,  what  we  are  to  understand  by  the  words,  J^Tot 
every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord. 

Secondly,  what  is  meant  by  our  Saviour's  expression  of 
mens'  entering  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

Thirdly,  I  shall  inquire  what  qualification  must  be  possessed 
by  those  who  shall  be  admitted  to  enter  in  ;  and,  then, 

Conclude  with  an  application  of  the  subject. 

L  First,  I  am  to  explain  what  we  are  to  understand  by  the 
words,  JVot  every  one  that  saithunto  mc,  Lord,  Lord. 

As  the  words  of  my  text  were  spoken  at  the  close  of  that 
divine  summary  of  Christian  doctrine  and  practice,  contained 
in  our  Saviour's  Sermon  on  the  mount,  they  evidently  refer  us, 
as  well  as  those  to  whom  they  were  spoken,  to  the  trial  and 
proof  of  all  religious  condition,  in  the  standard  of  the  gospel. 
They  are,  therefore,  addressed  to  all  those  to  whom  the  gospel  is 
offered,  and  to  whom,  thereby,  life  and  immortality  are  brought 
to  light ;  but  more  particularly  to  those  who  in  any  manner 
rely  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  acceptance  with  God. 
The  whole  text  is  prospective  in  its  bearing,  and  points  us  for- 
ward to  that  day  when  God  ivill  judge  the  secrets  of  men  by 
Jesus  Christ,  according  to  the  'gospel;  and  the  supieme 
importance  of  an  interest  in  him  will  be  so  manifest,  that  every 


THE  RULK  OF  FUTURE  JUDGMENT.  361 

sremblance  even  of  a  knowledge  of  liim  or  of  his  religion,  will 
be  resorted  to,  as  a  refuge  against  despair. 

By  calling  our  Saviour  Lord,  vs^e  acknowledge  him  to  be  the 
Christ,   the   Son  of  God,  which  should  come  into  the  world, 
thereby  admitting  his  authority  as  a  divine  teacher,  and  owning 
the  truth  and  obligation  of  his  religion.     But  as  this   acknow- 
Jedgtnent  of   Christ  necessarily  includes   observance   of  his 
msiitutions  and  example,  the  words  under  consideration  are  an 
enforcement  of  this  obligation  upon  all   who   thus  acknowledge 
him  as  Lord,  with  a  plain   declaration  implied,    that  otherwise, 
it  will  profit  them  nothing.    Whij  call  ije  me  Lord,  and  do  not  the 
things  ichich  I  say  1     These  words  in  the    text,  therefore,  are 
equivalent  to  the  declaration — Not  every  one   who  is  born  in  a 
Christian  land,  and  received  into  the  visible  Church  by  baptism — 
not  every  one  who  makes  an  external  profession  of  religion — not 
every  nominal  or  pretended  believer  in  Christianity — shall  there- 
by be  entitled  to  the  rewards  of  my  kingdom.     These,  indeed, 
are  all  required  of  those  who  call  me  Lord,  and  are  profitable, 
as  means  to  an  end  ;   but  without  the  end  they  are  but  as  leaves 
on  the   fig  tree.     The  belief  of  religious  truth,  if  it   goes   no 
further — if  it  produces  no  fruits,  no  corresponding  effects  upon 
the  life,  is  a  barren,  useless  thing  ;  it  is  dead,  being  alone.  This, 
therefore,  says   our  Lord,  will   be  no  recommendation  to  my 
favour  ;  to  complete    the  Christian  character,   and  fit  you  for 
the  inheritance  of  the   saints,  more   substantial  proofs   of  faith 
and    holiness  are  required  than  the  mere  accidental  advantages 
of  birth  and  education,  or  the  mere  profession  of  religion.  This 
may  easily  exist,  and  even  be  found  prominent,   in  the  midst  of 
inordinate  affections,   unsubdued  lusts,  unhumbled   pride,  and 
unholy  lives.      But  into  my  kingdom,    no  unclean  thing    can 
enter;  neither  whatsoever  worketh  abon)ination  or  loveth  a  lie. 
These  are  the  words  to  be  understood  and   applied  by  a'l 
under  the    gospel :    a  conclusion  which   is  confirmed  by  the 
very  purpose  of  religion,  independently  of  any  special  declara- 
tion, and,  therefore,  to  be  the  more  seriously  considered  in 
every  investigation  of  spiritual  condition.     Yet,  as  our  blessed 
Redeemer  knew  the  prevailing  propensity  of  our  fallen  nature 
to  put  words  for  things,  and  to  substitute  form  for  substance  ; 
Vol.  1L— 46 


36S 


THE  RULK  OF  FUTURE  JUDGMENT, 


as  he  also  knew  with  what  unwearied  assiduity  the  great  enemy 
of  God  and  man  would  work  for  the  corruption  of  the  truth, 
and,  even  through  the  semblance  of  religion,  seduce  multitudes 
from  the  simplicity  and  certainty  of  the  gospel ;  therefore,  did 
he  warn  them  beforehand  that  nothing  short  of  the  genuine 
fruit  of  the  gospel,  obtained  through  the  operation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  upon  the  heart,  and  manifested  in  the  present  life  by  a 
holy  conversation  in  the  world,  would  secure  his  acknowledg- 
ment of  them  as  his  true  disciples,  in  the  great  day  of  eternity. — 
JSTot  every  one  that  saith  unto  me  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

IL  Secondly,  I  am  to  explain  what  is  meant  by  our  Saviour's 
expression  of  men's  entering  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

The  words  kingdom  of  heaven  and  kingdom  of  God  are  used 
in  Scripture  to  express,  sometimes  the  visible  Church  or  com- 
munion of  saints  upon  earth,  and  sometimes  the  kingdom  of 
glory  in  a  future  state.  In  the  present  connexion  there  can 
be  no  doubt  as  to  which  of  these  our  Lord  refers  in  the  text. 
By  entering  into  this  kingdom,  then,  we  must  understand  the 
being  adjudged  worthy  of  a  reward  of  etei-nal  life,  and  as  this 
necessarily  leads  the  thoughts  to  realize  the  trial  we  have  to 
undergo  at  the  tribunal  of  Christ,  it  serves  to  impress  more 
powerfully  upon  the  heart  the  necessity  of  that  circumspection 
and  earnestness,  that  diligence  and  faithfulness  in  all  our  duties, 
without  which  there  can  be  no  good  hope  of  being  permitted  to 
enter  in. 

Few  things,  my  brethren,  are  better  calculated  to  beget  a 
false  estimate  of  religious  condition,  than  to  entertain  in  the 
imagination  expectations  of  future  happiness  without  a  distinct 
reference  to  a  future  judgment.  When  the  mind  is  excited  with 
high  wrought  descriptions  of  the  glories  of  heaven,  or  with  high 
wrought  imaginations  of  what  awaits  the  righteous  in  the  king- 
dom of  God — when  the  practice  prevails  of  dwelling  upon  this 
subject  almost  exclusively  either  in  public  or  in  private,  and 
professors  of  religion  are  snatched,  as  it  were,  from  death  to 
glory,  overlooking  the  awful  trial  which  must  precede  it — the 
sober  duties  of  the  gospel  are  forgotten,  and  no  relish  is  enter- 
tained for  any  thing  in  religion,  unless  as  it  is  calculated  to  uphold 


THE  RULE  OF  FUTURE  JUDGMENT.  363 

the  delusion  of  a  mind  whose  judgment  is  mastered  by  its  feel- 
ina^s,  and  thereby  incapacitated,  certainly  for  the  time,  most 
probably  at  all  times,  for  the  reasonable  service  of  redeemed 
beiiii^s  to  God  and  to  each  other.  Therefore,  as  our  entrance 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  will  depend  altogether  on  the  judg- 
ment to  be  passed  by  a  heart-searching  God  on  the  deeds  done 
in  the  body,  the  constant  recollection  of  this  truth  is  the  great 
preservative  against  the  danger  of  an  extravagant  and  unfounded 
hope,  derived  from  feelings  casually  excited. 

It  is  this  thought,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  which  brings  the 
conduct,  the  actions,  and  motives  of  the  man,  rather  than  his 
language  and  his  feelings,  under  examination.  It  is  this  thought 
which  solemnizes  the  high  expectation  of  a  heavenly  inheritance, 
and  causes  its  entertainer  to  feel  jealous  lest  he  deceive  himself; 
and  which  tempers  the  rejoicing,  even  of  the  righteous,  with 
reverence  and  godly  fear.  And  it  is  this  thought  which,  by 
habitually  connecting  the  reward  with  the  duties  to  which  it  is 
promised,  presents  at  once  the  most  powerful  motives  to  per- 
form them,  and  the  highest  assurance  of  being  counted  worthy 
to  enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.  JVof 
every  one  that  saith  unto  me  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaveii,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven. 

III.  Thirdly,  I  am  to  inquire  what  qualifications  must  be 
possessed  by  those  who  shall  be  admitted  to  enter  in. 

Our  Saviour's  declaration  in  the  text  is  the  full  and  satisfac- 
tory answer  to  this  all-important  inquiry,  my  brethren — He  that 
doeth  the  will  of  God  as  revealed  in  his  word.  This  answer, 
however  short,  comprehends  all  that  wisdom  can  teach  or  life 
can  practice,  and  is  the  sole  condition  on  which  the  hope  of 
eternal  life  can  safely  be  entertained. 

There  can  be  no  question,  then,  either  as  to  the  duty  or  as  to 
the  necessity  of  acquainting  ourselves  with  that  will,  and  of  fol- 
lowing exactly  what  it  prescribes  ;  bringing  our  religious  profes- 
sion, our  conduct  as  Christians,  and  our  hope  towards  God,  to 
the  appointments,  declarations,  and  example  of  his  revealed 
Avord,  as  the  only  and  the  infallible  standard  of  his  holy  will. 

Now,  though  this  is  certainly  within  the  compass  of  the  ability 


364         THE  RULE  OF  FUTURE  JUDGMENT. 

which  God  giveth,  and  in  itself  easy — or  he  would  not  require  it 
of  all  who  are  favoured  with  the  gospel — nevertheless,  such  is 
the  situation  of  the  Christian  world  through  corruption  of  doc- 
trine and  division  of  order,  that  the  truth  is  obscured  and 
difficulty  greatly  increased  in  ascertaining  what  that  will  of 
God  is,  which  must  be  followed  and  obeyed  in  order  to  salvation. 
Yet  as  this  unhappy  state  of  things  cannot  absolve  from  the 
obligation  to  inquire  diligently  what  his  will  is,  it  should  surely 
operate  to  increase  the  caution  with  which  modern  systems  of 
divine  truth  are  received  and  relied  upon,  as  the  will  of  God  ;  and 
this  the  rather,  not  only  because  we  are  warned  against  it  in  the 
word  itself,  but  because,  in  the  whole  extent  of  that  word,  there  is 
not  so  much  as  a  hint  that  sincerity  in  error  will  render  a  mis- 
taken view  of  the  will  of  God,  and  the  erroneous  conduct  con- 
sequent thereon,  acceptable  to  him  and  available  to  salvation. 
Whatever,  therefore,  may  be  reasoned  by  men  on  this  ground, 
is  a  gratuitous  assumption  of  what  God  hath  not  revealed,  and 
we  nmy  boldly  say,  could  not  reveal  without  thereby  vacating 
the  whole  purpose  of  the  Bible  as  the  infallible  standard  of  his 
holy  will  to  fallen  sinners.  JMany  shall  come  in  my  name,  saying; 
I  am  Chuist,  and  shall  deceive  many,  but  go  ye  not  after  them  ; 
for  there  shall  arise  false  Christs  and  false  prophets,  and  shall  shots 
great  signs  and  wonders,  insomuch  that  if  it  were  possible  they  shall 
deceive  the  very  elect.     Behold  I  have  told  you  before. 

The  great  purpose  of  the  gospel,  and  the  declared  will  of 
God  being  the  sanctification  of  corrupt  and  sinful  creatures,  in 
order  to  tit  them  for  future  happiness,  this  qualification  must 
be  obtained,  or  there  can  be  no  just  hope  of  acceptance  with 
God.  But  as  no  man  can  sanctify  himself,  in  the  proper  sense 
of  the  word,  as  no  fallen  sinner  can  change  his  own  heart,  and 
renew  the  image  of  God  in  his  own  soul  or  in  the  soul  of 
another,  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  all  men  should  have  recourse 
to  the  means  of  grace  provided  for  this  end,  in  and  through  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  that  would  be  saved,  therefore,  in 
the  great  day  of  eternity,  must,  in  the  present  life,  receive  and 
believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  he  is  offered  to  sinners 
in  the  gospel.  He  must  repent  and  forsake  his  sins,  according 
to  the  conditions  of  the  baptismal  covenant  in  and  by  which  he 


THE  RULE  OF  FUTURE  JUDGMENT.  365 

is  made  a  member  of  Christ,  a  child  of  God,  and  an  inheritor 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  and  as  in  this  new  relation  to  Goo  all 
the  helps  and  privileges  of  the  covenant  of  grace  are  conferred 
upon  him,  he  is  required,  and  does  therein  engage  to  lead  a  nev^r 
life,  following  the  commandments  of  God.  In  which,  if  he 
persevere  to  the  end,  growing  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  his  title  to  the 
heavenly  reward  is  acknowledged  by  the  Judge,  he  is  owned 
as  a  good  and  faithful  servant,  and  enters  into  the  joy  of  his 
Lord. 

But  in  point  of  fact,  few  or  none  do  in  this  wise  fulfil  their 
baptismal  engagement ;  for  the  privileges  therein  conferred  are 
forfeited  by  personal  sin.  Yet  where  men  might  justly  have 
been  left  without  remedy,  God,  even  the  most  merciful  God, 
who  knows  whereof  we  are  made,  how  fiail  and  corrupt  sin 
hath  made  us,  and  what  powerful  temptations  are  presented  by 
the  world,  the  tlesh,  and  the  devil,  hath  fitted  this  dispensation 
of  his  mercy  and  grace  to  our  fallen  and  infirm  condition  ;  and 
in  the  grant  of  repentance  and  renewed  obedience  to  all  who 
have  thus  sinned,  provides  for  their  conversion  and  restoration 
to  his  favour,  through  the  prevailing  intercession  of  his  only 
begotten  Son  ;  and  through  iaith  in  him,  accepts  them  as  right- 
eous, and  entitled  to  all  the  piivileges  and  hopes  of  his  adopted 
children.  But  the  penitent  thus  restored  must  continue  faith- 
ful, otherwise  he  incurs  the  awful  risk  of  abandonment  by  the 
Spirit  of  grace,  being  delivered  over  to  the  mastery  of  his  own 
corruptions  without  restraint,  and  of  being  consigned  to  destruc- 
tion as  utterly  incorrigible. 

The  qualifications  for  eternal  life,  then,  are  repentance 
towards  God  and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  professed  by 
embracing  the  gospel,  and  evidenced  by  the  fruits  of  faith  in  all 
holy  conversation  and  godliness  of  life  ;  persisted  in  to  the  end 
as  a  faithful  member  of  Christ's  mystical  body,  the  Church 
which  he  bought  with  his  own  blood,  and  for  which  he  gave 
himself  that  he  might  cleanse  it  from  all  pollution,  and  present 
it  to  God  a  glorious  Church,  purified  from  the  defilement  of 
sin,  and  renewed  in  holiness.  This  purpose  the  faithful  Chris- 
tian has  ever  before  him ;   he  looks  to  the  end — to  the  account 


SQ6  THE  RULE  OP  FUTURE  JUDGMENT, 

he  has  to  give  in,  to  the  Judge  who  shall  assign  his  everlasting 
condition.  These  quicken  and  strengthen  him  to  crucify  the 
Jlesh  wilh  the  affections  and  lusts  of  a  fallen,  corrupt  nature  ;  to 
put  off  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh ;  to  cleanse  himself  from  all 
Jilthiness  of  the  flesh  and  spirit,  perfecting  holiness  in  the  fear  of 
God  ;  and  to  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high  calling 
of  God  in  Christ  Jesus.  Great  and  manifest  imperfection, 
yea  even  sin,  cleaves  to  his  best  services  ;  he  feels  that  they  are 
nothing  worth  in  the  eye  of  unspotted  purity  and  holiness,  that 
he  is  in  himself  an  unprofitable  servant.  But  he  looks  unto 
Jesus,  to  the  promises  of  God  in  him,  to  the  merit  of  his  right- 
eousness, and  to  the  atoning  virtue  of  his  blood.  Faith  presents 
these  continually  to  God,  and  hope  looks  forward  with  humble 
confidence  to  the  reward  of  grace  in  the  loell  done,  good  and 
faithfid  servant,  with  which  his  Lord  and  his  Judge  shall  confess 
him  before  his  Father  and  the  holy  angels.  J^ot  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
but  he  that  doelh  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

The  application  of  this  awful  subject,  and  of  what  I  have  said 
upon  it,  brings  home  to  our  consideration,  my  brethren  and 
hearers,  the  true  design  and  purpose  of  the  religion  of  the 
gospel,  in  preparing  sinful  creatures  for  everlasting  happiness 
in  the  kingdom  of  God,  by  the  renewal  and  sanctification  of 
their  corrupt  natures  in  the  present  life.  This  alone,  if  duly 
considered,  might  give  an  importance  to  time,  distinct  from 
every  worldly  consideration  ;  and  teach  us  so  to  number  our  days 
as  to  apply  our  hearts  unto  lolsdom. — might  rescue  this  precious 
talent  from  the  sinful  vanities  and  idolatrous  pursuits  of  the 
world,  and  devote  it  to  the  higher  interests  of  our  eternal  state. 
How,  then,  let  us  ask  ourselves,  are  we  prepared  for  the  awful 
solemnity  represented  in  my  text  1  My  dear  hearers,  we  must 
all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  0/  Christ  ;  from  this  there  is 
no  escape  for  any ;  and  we  know  not  how  soon  death  may  seal 
us  up  to  the  judgment  of  that  day,  and  put  repentance  and  hope 
for  ever  beyond  our  reach.  Shall  any,  then,  contiiiue  to  trifle 
with  this  tremendous  uncertainty,  and,  in  the  wantonness  of 
defiance,  provoke  God  to  surrender  them  to  impenitence  1 
God  forbid  !      Rather  let  it  quicken  us  all,   according   to  our 


THE  RULE  OF  FUTURE  JUDGMENT.  367 

several  conditions,  to  search  and  try  our  ways,  and  bring  our 
hope,  whatever  it  may  be,  to  the  standard  of  God's  revealed 
will  ;  for  this  it  is  wliicli  alone  can  correct  error  and  give 
assurance  to  truth,  and  by  which  we  all  shall  be  judged. 

Let  professors  of  leligion,  especially,  bring  their  hope  to  this 
standard  ;  not  in  part  only,  but  in  the  whole  of  its  foundation 
and  superstructure.  Let  them  open  their  Bibles,  and  then 
trace,  step  by  step,  their  conformity  with  the  will  and  command 
of  Almighty  God.  Let  them  open  their  hearts,  and  there  search 
for  the  sanctifying  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Let  them 
inspect  their  lives,  and,  from  the  the  fruit  thence  yielded,  judge 
whether  the  tree  is  made  good.  To  them,  in  particular,  is  the 
warning  of  my  text  addressed.  They  are  the  persons  who  call 
Christ  Lord  ;  and  he  therein  affectionately  cautions  them 
against  the  shame  and  ruin  of  being  by  him  disowned  before 
God. 

And  let  those  who  have  hitherto  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
counsel  of  God,  who  have  smothered  the  voice  of  conscience, 
and  stifled  the  convictions  of  the  HoLy  Spirit  in  their  hearts; 
who  are  yet  surrounded  with  the  goodness  of  God,  and  certified 
by  the  gospel,  that  He  hath  not  appoinled  them  to  ivrath,  ^tut  to 
obtain  salvation  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ;  who  nmst  also  be 
judged  by  the  word  spoken  unto  them — Let  them  awake  to 
the  warning  of  my  text,  and  ask  themselves  what  preparation 
is  made  for  the  day  of  the  Lord,  by  doing  the  will  of  God  ?  O 
let  them  bring  the  levity  and  thoughtlessness  in  which  their  day 
of  life  and  grace  is  fast  vanishing  away,  to  the  judgment  then 
.to  pass  upon  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  and  ask  themselves — 
Is  this  what  God  requires  of  me  that  I  may  be  savetl  ?  Think  a 
moment,  my  fellow  sinners,  of  what  God  hath  done  for  your 
salvation,  and  of  what  you  have  done  in  return  for  his  love. 
Think  of  the  awful  hour  when  you  must  give  account  of  your- 
selves, to  Him  who  made  and  redeemed  you, for  the  improvement 
of  this  and  all  his  other  mercies.  And,  O  think,  what  horror 
and  despair  will  seize  upon  you  above  all  others,  when  that 
merciful  Saviour  who  poured  out  his  life  to  save  you  from  hell, 
shall  be  compell'^d  to  disown  you  ;  when  your  then  earnest 
Lord,  Lord,    shall    meet  no  answer  from  infinite  love,   but 


368  THE  RULE  OF  PUTtfRE  JUDGMENT. 

Depart  from  me,  I  never  knew  you  !  O  try  to  realize  this  awful 
moment,  till  your  sins  become  hateful  and  burdensome,  and 
the  cross  of  Christ  your  only  refuge  from  the  wrath  of  that 
day.  Now  it  is  given  unto  you  by  the  long-suffering  mercy  of 
God  to  crv  effectually,  Lord  I  come  to  thee,  thou  hast  the  words 
of  eternal  life ;  Lord  /  believe,  help  thou  mine  unbelief;  Lord  save 
or  I  perish  !  And  now  it  is  given  to  Christ  to  say  to  you.  Him 
that  cometh  unto  me  1  will  in  no  wise  cast  out ;  Son  thy  sins  be 
forgiven  thee,  go  and  sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing  befall  thee. 
But  then,  all  this,  now  so  freely  offered  you  in  Christ  Jesus, 
will  be  done  away.  As  your  Judge,  Christ  will  know  nothing 
but  your  works  and  your  words  ;  the  temper  of  your  souls,  and 
the  fruit  of  your  doings ;  and  according  to  the  record  of  your 
life  must  the  everlasting  sentence  be  passed. 

O  that  a  gracious  God  may  impress  these  solemn  truths  upon 
all  your  hearts,  and  bring  your  lives  under  their  blessed  influ- 
ence. O  that  he  would  write  in  all  our  hearts  the  unalterable 
appointment  of  his  wisdom,  in  bringing  sinners  to  salvation  by 
the  cross  of  Christ  ;  that  if  we  would  be  happy  hereafter  we 
must  become  holy  here  ;  that  if  we  would  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  we  must  do  the  will  of  God  upon  earth,  as  revealed 
to  us  in  the  gospel  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord, 


SERMON  XXXIII. 

THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION. 

Titus  iii.  8. 

"This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  these  things  1  will  that  thou  affinii  constantly,  that 
they  which  have  believed  in  God  might  be  careful  to  maintain  good  works." 

Could  any  reasonable  doubt  be  entertained  of  the  obligation 
Christians  are  under  to  adorn  their  profession  by  a  walk  and 
conversation  in  the  world  conformed  to  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
the  strong  terms  in  which  the  apostle  here  presses  upon  Titus 
the  duty  of  insisting  upon  this  point  in  his  public  preaching, 
might  serve  to  correct  it  ;  and  to  warn  all  professing  Christians, 
that  religion  without  the  practice  of  its  duties  is  no  other  than 
the  building  on  the  sand,  which  will  be  swept  away  in  the  day 
of  trial,  and  confound  the  expectations  of  its  deluded  enter- 
tainer. At  the  first  view  of  the  subject,  it  would  seem  next  to 
impossible  that  rational  beings  could  so  overlook  the  great  pur- 
pose and  design  of  religion  as  to  satisfy  themselves,  or  to  imagine 
its  Divine  Author  can  be  satisfied,  with  an  empty  profession  of 
faith.  Yet  the  Scriptures  themselves  and  our  own  experience 
concur  in  proving  that  it  is  not  only  a  possible,  but  a  very  fre- 
quent delusion,  to  substitute  the  form  for  the  power  of  godliness. 
It  is  the  bent  and  bias  of  our  fallen  nature,  my  brethren  and 
hearers,  to  decline  from  the  strait  and  narrow  way  of  holiness — 
to  pare  down  the  duties  of  religion  to  the  standard  of  our  own 
interest  and  convenieiice — to  search  for  excuses  to  uphold  some 
conformity  with  the  world,  and  by  making  Christ  the  minister 
of  sin,  to  make  void,  as  to  ourselves,  the  gracious  purpose  of  his 
merciful  undertaking  for  a  world  of  sinners.  This  the  apostle 
well  knew,  and,  therefore,  charged  Titus  in  such  strong  terms 
to  press  upon  his  hearers  the  necessity  of  a  holy  life,  in  order  to 
reap  any  benefit  from  a  right  faith.  This  is  a  faithful  saying; 
that  is,  it  is  not  only  true,  but  a  truth  of  such  leading  importance 
Vol.  II.— 47 


370  THE    DUTY   OF   PROFESSORS    OP   RELIGION. 

as  to  pervade  the  whole  structure  of  Christianity,  and  to  give  fa 
the  hope  derived  from  the  gospel  the  cha'acter  of  sure  and  cer- 
tain, or  of  false  and  unfounded  ;  therefore,  says  he,  I  will  thai 
thou  affirm  this  constantly.  St.  Paul  had  also  experienced  how 
prone  men  are  to  corrupt  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith  without  works.  He  knew  how  readily  the  corrupt 
heart  and  clouded  understanding  of  a  fallen  race  would  seize 
upon  an  abstract  point  in  a  system  of  religion,  and  build  upon 
it  the  fatal  delusions  of  antinomian  error.  He,  therefore,  enjoins 
it  upon  Titus  to  guard  against  this  evil,  and  in  the  exercise  of 
his  public  ministry  to  enforce  upon  all  believers  the  obligation  of 
good  works,  not  only  as  a  distinct  doctrine  of  the  religion  he 
was  commissioned  to  teach,  but  as  the  only  evidence  of  a  true 
and  saving  faith. 

The  union  of  a  right  faith  and  a  holy  life,  therefore,  being  the 
only  ground  of  a  good  hope  to  the  believer,  and  in  order  to 
impress  upon  those  who  make  a  profession  of  religion  the 
necessity  of  maintaining  all  such  good  works  as  God  hath  jtre- 
pared  for  them  to  walk  in,  in  discoursing  upon  these  words  I 
will,  in  the 

First  place,  explain  in  what  sense  the  words  they  which 
have  believed  in  God  are  to  be  understood  and  applied. 

Secondly,  I  will  consider  the  nature  and  kind  of  the  good 
works  by  them  to  be  maintained. 

Thirdly,  I  shall  point  out  the  obligations  which  are  neces- 
sarily undertaken  by  all  who  make  a  profession  of  religion  ; 
and,  then. 

Conclude  with  some  practical  observations. 

This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  these  things  I  will  that  thou  affirm 
constantly,  that  they  which  have  believed  in  God  might  be  careful 
to  maintain  good  works. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  explain  in  what  manner  the  vfovds,  they  which 
have  believed  in  God  are  to  be  understood  and  applied. 

It  must  be  evident,  I  think,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  that  to 
any  just  and  practical  application  of  divine  truth,  it  is  exceedingly 
necessary  that  the  terms  and  figures  made  use  of  in  Scripture  to 
describe  the  effects  produced  by  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
under  an  extraordinary  and  miraculous  dispensation  of  religion, 


THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION.  371 

should  be  carefully  accommodated  to  the  very  different  circum- 
stances of  the  same  religion,  and  of  the  persons  to  whom  it  is 
preached,  when  miraculous  attestation  is  withdrawn. 

This  accommodation,  however,  ought  only  to  be  applied  to 
the  manner  in  which  a  particular  doctrine,  or  its  effects,  are 
exhibited  by  the  inspired  writers,  and  never  to  the  doctrine  itself 
or  to  the  effect,  as  universally  necessary.  Thus,  the  doctrine  of 
the  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  conversion  of  sinners 
and  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  in  believers,  as  exhibited  in  the 
Scriptures  under  an  extraordinary  dispensation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  to  be  practically  useful,  must  be  accommodated  to  the 
circumstances  of  a  dispensation,  in  which  only  his  ordinary 
operations  are  to  be  looked  for  and  obtained ;  while  the  doctrines 
themselves  are  to  be  enforced  as  equally  indispensable  now  as  at 
the  beginning.  For  sinners  must  yet  be  converted  or  perish,  and 
there  is  no  power  which  can  change  the  heart  and  communi- 
cate spiritual  life  but  God  the  Holy  Ghost. 

But,  however  obvious  this  accommodation  must  be,  and  even 
essential  to  the  just  exhibition  and  practical  application  of 
revealed  truth  under  the  present  state  of  the  gospel,  there  is  one 
particular  in  religious  condition  to  which  no  difference,  either  of 
state  or  dispensation,  admits  of  any  accommodation.  Both 
Heathen  and  Christian  men  must  believe  the  gospel  if  they 
would  be  consideied  as  believing  in  God. 

The  gospel  is  his  message  to  mankind  by  his  only  begotten 
Son,  It  is  his  testimony  in  the  world  to  and  of  his  only  begot- 
ten Son,  as  the  sole  medium  of  his  mercy  and-  favour  to  men, 
and  it  is  by  him  commanded  to  be  preached  among  all  nations  for 
the  obedience  of  faith.  Whosoever,  therefore,  receiveth  not  the 
gospel  believeth  not  God  ;  and  the  Scripture  declares  of  every 
such  person,  in  its  severest  language,  that  he  hath  made  God  a 
liar,  because  he  believeth  not  the  record  that  God  gave  of  his  Son. 

The  expression  in  my  text,  then,  they  which  have  believed  in 
God,  being  the  designation  given  by  St.  Paul  to  those  who  from 
among  the  Heathen  turned  to  the  Lord  by  embracing  the  con- 
ditions of  the  gospel,  must  be  umlerstood  and  applied  by  us 
exclusively  to  those  persons  who,  in  like  manner,  by  a  public 
profession  of  faith  in   Christ,  and  by  an  open  union  with  his 


372  THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION. 

visible  Church,  do  show  to  the  world  that  they  have  so  believed 
in  God,  as  he  by  his  holy  word  requires  them  to  believe.  This 
was  the  evidence  given  by  the  first  converts  to  the  religion  of  the 
gospel.  This  was  the  only  distinction  between  being  of  the 
world  and  being  of  God,  known  to  the  apostles  of  Christ.  There 
was  then  no  middle  or  neutral  ground  like  the  abstract,  naked 
belief  of  so  many  in  these  days,  Lut  every  believer  was  openly 
professed,  was  in  full  co  nmunion  with  the  Church,  and  was, 
therefore,  only  accounted  a  believer  because  he  thus  continued 
steadfast  in  the  apostles  doctrine  and  fellowship,  and  in  breaking 
of  bread,  and  in  prayers.  Therefoie,  the  same  evidence  must 
now  determine  whether  we  are  of  the  number  which  have 
believe  1  in  God,  or  of  those  who  falsify  the  testimony  he  hath 
given  by  his  only  begotten  Son,  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  consider  the  nature  and  kind  of  good 
works  by  them  to  be  maintained. 

It  is  a  maxim  of  Christ's  religion  that  no  man  liveth  to  him- 
self;  and  though  this  is  primarily  to  be  taken,  as  the  apostle 
teaches,  of  the  account  we  have  to  give  in  to  God,  as  our  Lord 
and  master,  it  is  also  true  of  the  mutual  dependence  on  each 
other,  in  which  men  are  placed  in  the  present  life  ;  and  of  the 
consequent  effects  which  the  conduct  of  one  may  produce  upon 
the  welfare  and  happiness  of  many.  Hence,  as  religion  is  the 
substitute  which  the  wisdom  of  God  hath  devised,  to  supply  the 
place  of  that  original  rectitude  which  the  entertainment  of  sin 
expelled  from  the  heart  of  man,  the  good  works  to  be  main- 
tained by  those  which  have  believed  in  God,  or  who  profess  to 
be  regulated  by  the  laws  of  his  religion,  must  be  of  such  nature 
and  kind  as  are  both  pleasing  to  God  by  being  directly  religious, 
and  profitable  also  to  men,  because  contributing  to  the  peace, 
comfort,  and  welfare  of  the  world. 

They  which  have  believed  in  God,  therefore,  will  be  careful  to 
maintain  the  good  work  of  cultivating  the  spirit  of  his  religion 
in  their  hearts  ;  by  the  study  of  his  holy  word,  by  meditating 
upon  his  glorious  perfections,  and  by  the  frequent  exercise  of 
prayer.  These  are  means  which  his  wisdom  hath  devised  and 
directed,  to  correct  and  transform  the  corruption  of  our  hearts, 
to  renew  his  image  in  our  souls,  and  prepare  us  for  the  glory 


THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION.  373 

and  happiness  of  his  heavenly  kingdom  ;  and  they  are  effectnal 
to  this  end,  through  his  promised  blessing  on  their  use.  For 
what  better  safe-guard  against  those  evil  ihnughls  which  assault 
and  hurt  the  soul,  than  to  keep  the  heart  occupied  with  medita- 
tions of  God  ?  What  safer  preventive  against  the  entertain- 
ment of  sin,  than  the  recollection  and  sobriety  of  mind  which 
the  exercise  of  private  prayer  calls  for  1  And  what  so  effectual 
to  promote  growth  in  grace,  as  thus  to  cherish  the  Divine  Spirit 
with  habitual  devotion.  For  thus  runs  the  promise,  to  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  more  abundance. 

They  which  have  believed  in  God,  will  likewise  be  careful  to 
maintain  the  good  work  of  the  public  worship  of  God  by  their 
personal  presence  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  ;  that  they  may 
join  with  their  brethren  in  those  holy  exercises  by  which  God 
is  glorified,  the  Church  edified,  and  faith  increased. 

/  xvas  glad  when  they  said  unto  me  let  us  go  into  the  house  of  the 
Lord,  is  the  language  in  which  David  expressed  his  delight  in 
the  public  duties  of  religion  ;  and  a  portion  of  the  same  spirit 
fills  the  heart  of  the  devout  Christian.  When  the  holy  day 
comes  round  and  invites  him  to  the  high  privilege  of  its  sacred 
appointments,  he  is  not  of  the  number  of  those  who,  for  some 
slight  obstruction  or  trifling  inconvenience  to  himself, /orsafce 
the  assembling  of  themselves  together  with  their  brethren.  Par- 
ticularly when  the  great  sacrifice  for  sin  is  commemorated  is 
his  soul  alive  to  the  mighty  benefits  procured  for  us  by  the  same, 
and  his  S|)iiit  drawn  out  to  be  made  one  with  Him  ivho  loved  us 
and  gave  himself  for  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his 
own  blood. 

Thus,  in  the  exercise  of  public  and  private  devotion,  and  in 
the  use  of  the  sacrament  of  Christ's  body  and  blood  as  a 
means  of  grace  to  the  soul,  they  which  have  believed  in  God  are 
careful  to  maintain  all  such  good  works  as  he  hath  prepared  for 
them  to  walk  in,  that  they  may  thereby  maintain  that  good  work 
which  God  hath  begun  in  their  hearts  by  his  Holy  Spirit,  and 
reap  that  bright  reward  which  he  hath  promised  to  their  faith 
and  obedience  in  his  holy  word. 

They  which  have  believed  in  God  will  also  be  careful  to  main- 
tain such  good  works  as  are  profitable  to  men,  not  only  by 


374  THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION. 

avoiding  all  actions  directly  injurious  to  others,  but  by  the  per- 
formance of  all  such  within  their  ability  as  are  either  useful, 
beneficial,  or  consolatory,  to  their  brethren,  their  friends,  and 
neighbours,  and  all  others  in  reach  of  their  good  otfices. 
The  Christian,  then,  will  be  a  man  of  integrity.  And, 
First,  he  will  be  just  to  himself;  he  will  follow  no  calling 
or  occupation  which  puts  in  danger  the  care  of  his  soul.  He 
will  be  just  to  his  family,  with  industry  and  care  providing  for 
their  needful  support  and  advancement  in  life.  As  he  hath 
covenanted  for  them  with  God  and  before  men,  he  will  honestly 
perform  the  promise  and  vow  he  hath  publicly  undertaken.  He 
will,  therefore,  train  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord,  carefully  instilling  the  principles  of  religion  and  virtue, 
and  diligently  watching  against  and  correcting  the  buddings  of 
sin,  both  in  temper  and  conduct.  As  his  children  have 
renounced  the  world  through  him  as  their  surety,  he  will 
neither  lead  them  into  its  vanities  by  his  example,  nor  expose 
them  to  its  dissipations  by  his  indulgence.  From  his  in- 
structions they  will  early  learn  that  the  world  which  surrounds 
them  lieth  in  wickedness,  alienated  from  God  ;  that  its  pleasures 
and  its  profits  are  the  snares  in  which  souls  are  taken  captive 
by  the  ruler  of  its  darkness,  and  that  their  safety  consists  in 
keeping  away  from  the  blandishment  of  its  temptations  ;  by  his 
prudence,  active  employment  will  leave  no  vacancy  for  its 
follies  to  fill  up,  and  with  the  promised  blessing  of  God  on  these 
faithful  endi^avours,  their  ears  M'ill  be  open  to  receive  instruc- 
tion, and  their  hearts  to  retain  wisdom. 

Secondly,  the  Christian  will  be  just  to  all  men.  What- 
ever his  calling  may  be,  diligence,  truth,  and  uprightness  will 
preside  over  all  his  conduct.  His  treasure  not  being  on  earth, 
the  frauds  and  extortions  by  which  they  that  icill  be  rich  fall  into 
a  snare;  and  the  maximsof  gain,  which  the  convenient  morality 
of  the  world  sanctions,  present  no  temptation  to  him  to  violate 
the  higher  law  by  which  his  life  is  governed.  The  Christian, 
the  believer  in  God,  looks  habitually  to  the  end,  he  realizes  the 
continual  ins[)ection  of  an  all  seeing  eye  ;  and  bearing  ever  in 
mind  the  impressive  question.  What  is  a  man  profited  if  he  shall 
gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  1 — he  tinds  it  a  shield 


THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OP    RELIGION.  375 

and  a  buckler  against  every  inducement  to  unrighteous  gain, 
and  over  engagement  with  the  things  which  perish. 

Thirdly,  the  Christian  will  be  merciful  to  all  men. 

As  the  object  and  the  subject  of  the  highest  mercy  in  his 
own  person,  the  constant  sense  of  this,  under  which  he  lives, 
prompts  his  heart  to  feel  and  to  manifest  benevolence,  compas- 
sion, and  kindness  to  every  creature  of  God.  Being  himself 
forgiven  his  ten  thousand  talents,  he  retains  not  the  hundred- 
pence  offences  of  his  fellow  servants  ;  but,  in  the  exercise  of 
forgiveness,  walks  at  liberty  from  the  slavery  of  false  honour, 
and  the  galling  chains  of  pride,  hatred,  and  revenge.  Particu- 
larly with  the  unfortunate  and  the  afflicted  does  he  feel  himself 
drawn  out  to  sympathize,  and  moved  to  contribute  to  their 
relief  But  if  he  can  do  nothing  more,  he  loeeps  wilh  those  xoho 
weep,  and  tries  to  soften  and  assuage  the  distress  he  cannot 
remove,  by  sharing  in  their  grief.  Because  charily  seeketh  not 
her  own,  the  Christian  pushes  not  his  rights  to  extremity,  the 
bitter  tear  of  the  widow  and  the  fatherless  is  not  made  to  flow 
more  grievously  through  his  exactions.  Having  learnt  what  that 
meaneth,  /  xoill  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice,  no  ruin  is  accom- 
plished under  his  hand  ;  and,  where  the  hardness  of  the  world 
brings  it  to  pass,  he  commits  the  case  to  Him  who  judgeth 
righteously,  and  ichose  tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works. 

Fourthly,  the  Christian  will  be  liberal  to  all  men. 

His  compassion  will  not  be  allowed  to  evaporate  in  the  mere 
expression  of  pity,  but  will  show  itself  by  such  fruits  of  active 
benevolence  as  the  blessing  of  God  has  put  at  his  disposal. 
And,  if  he  is  a  Christian  indeed,  the  luxury  of  this  duty  will  not 
be  denied  him  for  want  of  means.  Something  will  be  reserved, 
even  from  his  own  accommodation,  if  no  otherwise  to  be  had, 
wherewith  to  relieve  the  indigent,  to  assist  the  destitute,  above 
all — because  comprehending  all  charities  in  one — above  all,  to 
set  forward  the  grand  remedy  for  the  miseries  of  this  life,  in  the 
advancement  of  the  pure  and  undefiled  religion  of  the-gospel. 
This  is  near  the  heart  of  the  true  Christian,  both  as  promoting 
the  glory  of  God  and  insuring  the  good  of  men  not  only  now 
but  for  ever.  And  did  professing  Christians  but  feel  and  under- 
stand as  they  should  do  their  duty  in  this  respect;  did  they  sacri- 


376  THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION. 

fice  less  to  custom  and  more  to  principle  ;  did  they  but  estimate 
the  souls  that  are  perishing  all  around  them  for  lack  of  know- 
ledge ;  did  they  reflect  on  the  rich  interest  which  would  be  retri- 
buted to  their  own  souls  in  thus  caring  for  the  souls  of  others,  they 
would  surely  turn  what  is  wasted  on  the  vanities  of  the  world 
into  this  channel,  and  make  glad  the  city  of  God  with  their 
liberality,  whilst  they  also  laid  up  for  themselves  a  good  founda- 
tion against  the  time  to  come,  in  the  city  which  hath  foundations, 
whose  builder  and  maker  is  God.  But  these  very  things  the 
true  Christian  provides  for,  by  repressing  inordinate  desires,  by 
interdicting  extravagant  expenditure,  and  by  putting  forth  dili- 
gence and  industry  in  his  occupation.  These  are  means  which 
God  has  put  in  the  reach  of  all  Christians,  and  has  warned 
them  to  make  to  themselves  friends  of  the  mammon  of  unright- 
eousness;  for  on  this  will  depend  their  being  counted  worthy  of 
the  true  riches. 

Such,  my  brethren,  are  the  good  works  which  Titus  was 
commanded  to  affirm  constantly,  that  they  which  have  believed 
in  God  should  be  careful  to  maintain.  And  surely  the  religion 
whose  true  purpose  and  genuine  fruit  it  is  to  promote  the  glory 
of  God  by  doing  good  to  our  fellow  creatures,  from  a  principle 
of  love  and  obedience  to  him,  must  commend  itself  not  only  to 
Christians,  but  to  all  who  can  feel  for  human  misery  or  desire 
human  happiness. 

111.  Thirdly,  I  am  to  point  out  the  obligations  which  are 
necessarily  undertaken  by  all  who  make  a  profession  of  religion. 

A  profession  of  religion,  properly  understood,  means  the 
declared  intention  to  devote  the  life  to  the  service  of  God, 
according  to  the  directions  given  in  the  gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  And  whether  this  be  done  from  the  conviction 
of  the  understanding  that  it  is  the  primary  duty  of  every 
accountable  being,  to  whom  the  offer  of  the  gospel  is  ma<le, 
forthwith  to  embrace  it,  or  from  any  series  of  impressions  and 
effects  previously  produced,  makes  no  difference  as  to  the  obli- 
gations undertaken. 

The  first  obligation  undertaken  by  those  who  make  a  pro- 
fession of  religion  is,  to  forsake  and  abandon  all  known  sin, 
that  is,  all  acts,  habits,  and  pursuits  forbidden  by  the  law  of  God. 


THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION.  377 

The  great  object  of  religion  being  the  defeat  and  destruction 
of  sin,  and  the  high  purpose  wherefore  Christ  came  in  the 
flesh  being  to  put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifices  of  himself,  those 
who  profess  to  believe  in  God  are  bound  by  the  highest  con- 
siderations to  watch  against  every  temptation  to  sin,  and  to 
resist  its  commission,  whatever  may  be  the  consequence.  As 
sin  is  in  positive  opposition  to  every  perfection  of  the  divine 
nature,  and  is  absolutely  inconsistent  with  the  present  and 
future  happiness  of  moral  beings,  and  the  whole  purpose  of  the 
present  life  being  the  extinguishment  of  its  love  in  our  hearts, 
and  of  its  practice  in  our  lives,  the  religion  through  which 
all  this  is  to  be  effected  cannot  permit  the  entertainment  of  sin 
in  those  who  profess  to  be  governed  by  its  holy  laws.  They 
which  have  believed  in  God,  therefore,  do  by  their  profession 
undertake  to  renounce  all  the  sinful  acts,  habits,  and  puisuits 
of  their  former  lives,  with  whatever  directly,  or  by  discover- 
able consequence,  involves  the  commission  of  sin. 

In  the  next  place,  those  who  make  a  profession  of  religion 
do  undertake  to  Hve  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this 
present  world. 

The  purpose  of  religion  being  to  prepare  sinners  for  heavenly 
happiness  and  eternal  glory,  it  is  indispensably  necessary  to 
this  end,  not  only  that  the  love  of  sin  should  be  rooted  out, 
but  that  they  should  acquire  those  opposite  tempers  and  dispo- 
sitions of  soul  which  form  the  character  of  holiness.  God 
being  essentially  hol}^  all  who  aspiie  to  the  enjoyment  of  his 
everlasting  presence  must  also  become  holy.  And  this  holiness 
being  to  be  obtained  in  the  use  of  means  by  him  prescribed,  it  is 
to  the  use  of  those  means  that  professors  of  religion  bind  them- 
selves, and  it  is  in  the  use  of  those  means  that  they  do  actually  be- 
come holy  and  heavenly  minded  persons.  God,  indeed, can  confer 
holioess  by  an  instantaneous  transformation  of  the  soul ;  but  it 
is  not  thus  that  he  deals  with  moral  beings.  He  gives  them  the 
means  of  becoming  holy,  and  assists  them  by  his  Spirit  in  the 
faithful  use  of  them  ;  but  he  requires  them,  and  for  this  very 
reason,  to  work  out  their  own  salvation,  by  leading  sober,  right- 
eous, and  godly  lives,  as  bccometh  their  profession  of  faith  in 
his  holy  word. 

Vol.  1 1. —48 


378 


THE    DUTY    OP     PROFESSORS    OP    RELIGION. 


To  live  soberly,  is  to  maintain  that  recollected,  serious  deport- 
ment which  so  high  an  interest  as  heavenl}'  happiness,  com- 
mitted to  so  corrupt  and  feeble  a  creature  as  the  Christian 
knows  and  feels  himself  to  be,  ought  to  produce.  The  thought 
of  how  much  is  at  stake,  of  the  means  by  which  it  has  been  made 
possible  to  be  saved,  of  the  awful  consequences  of  failure,  as 
they  must  be  frequent  in  the  mind  of  the  Christian,  so  must 
they  necessarily  beget  that  habit  of  watchfulness  and  circum- 
spection which  constitutes  sobriety  of  life.  This  duty,  how- 
ever, is  not  confined  to  the  general  or  prevailing  deportment  of 
the  external  conduct ;  it  applies  also  to  the  regulation  of  the 
appetites,  passions,  and  affections  of  the  soul.  These  are  all 
disordered  and  out  of  rule  by  the  infection  of  sin,  and  are  to  be 
restrained  and  governed,  mortified  and  subdued,  to  the  control 
and  direction  of  God's  holy  law.  They  are  also  to  be  renewed 
and  elevated  to  the  high  purpose  for  which  they  were  originally 
given,  by  being  directed  to  God,  accustomed  to  submit  to  his 
holy  will,  encouraged  to  trust  in  his  faithful  promises,  and  ex- 
alted to  hope  for  his  eternal  presence  as  the  full  satisfaction 
of  their  capacity  for  enjoyment. 

This  is  an  arduous  task,  my  brethren  ;  but  it  is  what  every 
professor  of  religion  has  undertaken  and  must  accomplish,  if 
he  would  gaii>  the  prize  of  his  high  calling.  But  he  is  not  called 
to  it  in  his  own  weakness,  but  in  the  strength  of  the  living  God  ; 
who  exhorts  him  to  live  soberly,  to  watch  diligently,  and  to 
strive  faithfully,  because  it  is  God  ivhich  worheth  in  him  both  to 
will  and  to  do.  A  sufficient  measure  of  divine  grace  is  bestowed 
upon  every  man,  to  enable  him  to  believe  and  come  to  God, 
and  upon  every  true  believer,  suflicient  to  all  required  duty  ; 
and  in  the  power  of  this  grace  all  things  are  possible  to  him 
that  believeth. 

To  live  soberly,  requires  from  the  Christian  professor  a 
distinct  separation  from  the  deportment  of  the  world  in  all 
those  things  which  mark  its  ungodliness.  The  world,  my 
brethren,  is  unholy,  and  Christians  are  called  to  come  out  of  it. 
Its  pomps  and  its  vanities,  its  lusts  and  its  pleasures,  are  incon- 
sistent with  all  sobriety  of  mind.  Even  its  more  innocent 
pleasures  a.nd  amusements  can  seldom  be  partaken  of  without 


THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF   RELIGION.  379 

the  painful  retrospect  of  mercies  misapplied,  without  the  sad 
experience  that  the  soul  is  less  inclined  to  hold  its  accustomed 
intercourse  with  God,  or  less  lively  in  its  addresses  to  a  throne 
of  grace.  Yet  the  sobriety  of  Christian  deportment  is  neither 
inconsistent  with  or  opposed  to  cheerfulness  and  enjoyment. 
Christian  society  has  its  pleasures  as  well  as  the  society  of  the 
world,  with  this  marked  advantage,  that  those  who  are  quali- 
fied to  enjoy  them  are  not  only  made  happy  for  the  time,  but 
better  and  happier  for  the  time  to  come.  And  when  this  can 
be  said  for  the  social  parties  of  the  world,  those  who  have 
undertaken  to  live  soberly,  as  professors  of  religion  may,  with- 
out danger  or  offence,  be  found  among  them  ;  but  not  till  then. 

To  live  righteously,  is  to  do  unto  others  as  we  would  they 
should  do  unto  us.  This  is  the  rule  given  by  our  Saviour  to  his 
disciples,  as  comprehending  the  three  great  principles  of 
morality — truth,  justice,  and  charity.  And  it  is  called  the 
golden  rule,  not  only  because  of  its  intrinsic  and  comprehen- 
sive wisdom,  as  the  foundation  of  moral  obligation  among  men, 
but  because  it  makes  our  own  wants  and  desires  the  measure  of 
our  charity  and  benevolence  to  others. 

As  no  man  can  possibly  wish  to  be  deceived,  defrauded,  or 
defamed,  every  man  is  bound,  by  that  very  circumstance,  to 
perform  all  the  offices  of  truth  and  justice  towards  other  men, 
doing  no  injury  to  any,  in  his  person,  character,  or  estate.  And 
as  every  man,  when  in  distress,  must  wish  to  be  relieved, 
according  to  the  nature  of  his  suffering,  he  is  thereby  bound  to 
afford  relief  and  assistance  to  others,  in  the  same  manner,  to 
the  extent  of  his  ability. 

This  obligation  every  prrofessor  of  religion  specially  under- 
takes, and  on  his  fulfilment  of  it  depends  the  worth  of  his 
profession,  both  here  and  hereafter.  As  human  laws  cannot 
enforce  the  duties  of  benevolence,  the  divine  law  enacts  them 
as  a  branch  of  moral  righteousness,  and  hath  expressly  declared 
that  the  unrigldeous  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God. 

To  live  godly,  is  to  add  to  sobriety  of  deportment  and  right- 
eousness of  life  the  governing  principle  of  the  reverence  and 
love  of  Almighty  God.  Acting  from  motives  derived  from  him, 
and  ending  in  him ;  referring  continually  to  his  holy  will ;  depend- 


380  THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION. 

ing  wholly  on  his  heavenly  grace  for  direction  and  support ; 
hoping  for  and  relying  on  his  promised  mercy,  solely  through 
the  merits  and  death  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  mani- 
festing this  principle  by  a  professed  subjection  to  the  gospel,  by 
the  regular  and  hearty  performance  of  all  the  public  and  private 
duties  of  religion,  and  by  bringing  forth  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit 
in  all  goodness,  and  righteousness,  and  truth,  in  the  life — this 
is  the  holiness  to  which  Christians  are  called,  which  they  profess 
to  desire  and  to  seek  for,  and  without  which  no  man  shall  see  the 
Lord. 

Such  are  the  good  works  which  Titus,  and  all  other  ministers 
of  Christ  after  him,  was  directed  to  affirm  constantly,  that 
they  lohich  have  believed  in  God  should  be  careful  to  maintain. 
And,  in  the  explanation  and  enforcement  of  the  text  which  I 
have  laid  before  you,  ye  see  your  calling,  my  brethren,  and  you 
learn  the  obligations  you  have  come  under  as  professors  of  reli- 
gion. You  learn,  also,  the  unspeakable  consequences  which 
depend  on  the  faithful  performance  of  them.  As  communi- 
cants, those  obligations  have  lately  again  been  renewed,  and  I 
conceived  it  my  duty  to  recall  your  attention  to  tiiem. 

Make  them,  then,  the  subject  of  your  most  serious  considera- 
tion, and  bring  them  to  bear  faithfully  on  your  spiritual  condi- 
tion. Apply  them  particularly  to  two  points  in  it.  The  one, 
the  state  of  your  heart  in  its  private  exercises  and  aspirations 
after  God.  Are  you  in  this  faithful  to  yourselves,  cherishing 
the  seed  of  divine  grace  in  your  hearts,  by  frequent  prayer, 
and  meditation  in  the  divine  wordi  Are  you  thankful,  drawn 
out  in  praise  for  the  divine  mercies  1  Are  you  watchful,  awake 
to  the  stirrings  of  sin  in  your  hearts,  and  diligent  to  resist  and 
drive  away  the  temptation  1 — The  other  point  is,  your  com- 
pliance with  customs  and  practices  of  the  world  which  cannot 
be  reconciled  with  a  fervent  spirit  of  piety,  and  with  that  separa- 
tion from  its  vanities  to  which  you  are  pledged.  Do  you  comply 
with  them  1  Do  you  comply  from  choice,  or  from  constraint  of 
some  kind  1  Do  you  derive  satisfaction  or  mortification  from 
the  compliance  1  These  incjuiries  will  enable  you  to  prove  your 
own  selves,  and  form  a  good  ground  of  confidence  and  hope,  or 
will  call  for  penitence  and  amended  Ufe.  And  great  thanks  be  to 


THE    DUTY    OF    PROFESSORS    OF    RELIGION.  381 

God,  his  ear  is  ever  open  to  the  cry  of  the   penitent,  and  his 
hand  ready  to  send  him  deliverance. 

The  great  danger  of  the  present  times  consists  in  a  general 
propensity  to  lower  the  standard  of  religious  duty  and  attain- 
ment, and  to  spread  out  the  hope  of  the  gospel  so  widely  as  to 
cover  much  in  Christian  conduct  and  in  Christian  condition,  that 
neither  the  letter  or  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  will  warrant.  This 
renders  it  the  more  necessary  that  those  who  make  a  profession 
of  religion  should  increase  their  watchfulness  over  themselves, 
and  over  their  brethren  ;  lest  this  ruinous  deceit  find  countenance 
and  support  through  their  inadvertent  compliance  in  things  not 
directly  sinful,  perhaps,  in  themselves,  yet  evidently  the  occa- 
sion of  much  sin  and  erroneous  opinion  on  the  subject  of  reli- 
gion, and  certainly  inconsistent  with  the  duties,  and  obligations, 
and  attainments  of  those  who  profess  to  have  believed  in  God 
on  the  faith  of  his  revealed  word.  The  Church  of  Christ  is 
compared  to  a  city  set  on  an  hill,  and  the  members  thereof  to 
the  light  which  makes  it  discoverable  amidst  the  darkness  of  the 
world.  But  if  this  light  itself  becomes  darkness,  by  the  members 
gradually  conforming  to  the  ways  and  practices  of  the  world, 
this  purpose  is  defeated  ;  and  Christians,  by  putting  out  the  light, 
become  the  destroyers  of  their  own  hope.  Therefore,  my 
Christian  brethren,  as  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ  and  members 
in  particular,  let  your  light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  may 
see  your  good  loorks,  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 


SERMON    XXXIV. 


DILIGENCE    IN    RELIGION. 


2  Peter  iii.    14. 


"Wherefore,  beloved,  seeing  ye  look  for  such  things,  be  diligent  that  ye  may  be 
found  of  him  in  peace,  without  spot,  and  blameless." 

Were  I  called  upon  to  say  what  I  considered  most  con- 
ducive to  the  formation  of  the  religious  character,  I  would 
unhesitatingly  name  serious  consideiation.  And  I  think  1  am 
warranted  in  this  from  the  actual  condition  of  mankind,  from 
the  nature  of  religion,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  communi- 
cations of  the  gospel  are  made  to  us. 

From  the  nature  of  man,  fallen  and  depraved,  he  is  chiefly 
attracted  by  present  and  sensible  things.  Their  power  and 
influence  over  him  is  very  great,  not  only  because  of  their 
subserviency  to  his  present  comfort  and  enjoyment,  but  because 
of  his  natural  darkness,  and  ignorance  of  higher  and  still  more 
lasting  enjoyments.  Yet  is  there  upon  tiie  mind  of  this  fallen 
and  perverted  creature  a  faint  and  obscure,  yet  anxious  and 
uneasy,  perception  of  things  which  are  not  the  objects  of  sense  ; 
in  which,  nevertheless,  he  is  deeply  inteiested.  Serious  con- 
sideration, therefore,  is  the  only  thing  which  can  enable  him  to 
form  some  just  estimate  of  what  he  is  most  attracted  by,  and  to 
give  a  clearer  and  more  impressive  character  to  those  anxious 
interests  which  lie  beyond  the  boundary  of  sense. 

From  the  nature  of  religion  also,  serious  consideration  must 
enter  into  any  safe  or  profitable  examination  of  its  importance 
to  our  present  as  well  as  future  welfare.  For  religion  is  a 
science,  even  the  science  of  eternal  life,  upon  conditions  declared 
by  Almighty  God,  and  proposed  to  our  attainment.  Without 
serious  consideration,  therefore,  it  cannot  be  understood  ;  and, 
if  not  understood,  will  never  be  desired  and  followed  as  the  one 
thing  needful.      Religion,  moreover,  is   a  reasonable  service 


DILIGENCE    IN   RELIGION.  383 

required  from  man  hy  his  Creator.  It  must,  therefore,  be  studied 
and  treasured  up  in  its  information,  its  doctrines,  its  precepts, 
and  its  sanctions  ;  and,  though  sjiiiitual  in  its  nature,  it  is  made 
so  to  us,  that  is,  we  imbibe  its  s|)iiit  through  the  instrumentality 
of  means  also  proposed  to  be  considered  and  applied  by  us. 

From  the  manner  in  which  the  communications  of  the  gospel 
are  made  to  us,  moreover,  the  necessity  as  well  as  advantage  of 
serious  consideration  must  be  still  more  evident.  For  the  gospel 
is  in  the  nature  of  a  proclamation  or  public  message  from  a 
potentate  to  his  subjects  ;  and,  as  it  embraces  a  great  variety  of 
matter  as  well  as  condition,  and  includes  time  that  is  past  and 
time  that  is  to  come,  as  well  as  that  now  present,  very  careful 
attention  is  necessary  to  apprehend  its  connexion  and  bearing 
upon  our  individual  interests. 

Having  also  this  public  message  recorded  for  our  instruction, 
in  such  wise  as  to  be  equally  authoritative  with  an  audible 
delivery  of  its  contents,  the  duty  of  acquainting  ourselves  with 
it  is  enforced  by  the  readiness  wherewith  we  may  apply  our- 
selves to  this  source  of  saving  knowledge  in  divine  things. 

If  serious  consideration,  then,  is  thus  necessary  and  profitable 
to  our  entrance  upon  religion  at  all,  it  is  equally  so  to  our  con- 
tinuance in  it  with  increase  and  advantage.  As  in  all  other 
sciences,  we  delight  in  them  more  as  we  become  better 
acquainted  with  them,  so  it  is  in  an  especial  manner  with  the 
science  of  religion.  Its  instruction  is  more  deep,  its  discoveries 
more  sublime,  its  results  more  certain  :  all  its  knowledge  leads 
to  a  practical  result,  and  a  present  reward,  with  this  high 
distinction  over  all  the  rest,  that  this  reward  shall  be  increased 
and  perpetuated  in  eternity. 

That  this  serious  consideration  was  recommended  by  our 
Lord  and  by  his  apostles,  we  learn  from  many  passages  in  the 
gospels  and  epistles,  and  that  it  was  practised  by  the  piimitive 
Christians,  and  particularly  by  those  to  whom  St.  Peter  wrote 
this  epistle,  we  learn  from  the  context.  From  this  it  would 
appear  that  meditations  upon  a  future  life,  and  upon  the  awful 
eventsof  death  and  judgment,  as  preparatory  to  it,  and  bearing 
upon  its  condition  for  happiness  or  misery  eternal,  were  the 
awakening  and  quickening  considerations  upon  which  their  faith 


384  DILIGENCE    IN    RELIGION. 

was  fruitful  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness.  Looking  for  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  according  to  the  promise  of  God, 
wherein  righteousness  only  should  dwell,  they  were  anxious  to 
secure  a  place  in  that  kingdom  ;  and  the  apostle's  exhortation  in 
my  text  is  founded  upon  this  principle,  and  calculated  to 
encourage  them  to  keep  their  minds  fixed  upon  these  realities 
as  alone  competent  to  counteract  and  overcome  the  deceits  of 
sin  and  the  ensnaring  influence  of  temporal  things.  Wherefore, 
beloved,  seeing  ye  look  for  such  things,  be  diligent  that  ye  may  be 
found  of  him  in  peace,  without  spot,  and  blameless. 

And  do  not  the  same  things  await  us,  my  hearers  1  And  do 
not  some  of  us  at  least  say  in  words,  that  we  look  for  them  1 
To  deepen  the  impression,  then,  upon  all  our  hearts,  let  us. 

First,  inquire  into  the  particular  events  which  occupy  the 
thoughts  of  the  people  of  God,  that  is,  of  all  true  Christians. 

Secondly,  into  the  effect  of  such  necessary  though  often- 
times alarming  and  painful  meditations  ;  and,  then, 

Conclude,  with  a  practical  application  of  the  suhject. 

I.  First,  to  inquire  into  the  particular  events  which  occupy 
the  thoughts  of  all  true  Christians. 

First,  then,  they  are  looking  for  death  ;  they  expect  it ;  they 
know  it  must  come.  In  this  they  differ  from  the  people  of  the 
world.  Both,  to  be  sure,  are  equally  certain  of  death,  but  one 
entertains  it  as  a  certainty  which  is  to  be  desired  ;  the  other, 
which  is  to  be  feared.  Both,  indeed,  feel  and  own  the  natural 
reluctance  to  part  with  life,  and  even  with  its  miseries  ;  but  in 
the  one,  the  rehictance  is  overcome,  even  in  the  most  timid,  by 
the  power  of  faith  in  the  promises  of  God,  certified  and  sealed 
in  the  resurrection  of  Christ  ;  while  in  the  other  it  is  increased 
by  these  very  considerations,  deepening  the  certainty  of  the 
awful  consequences  which  will  follow  after  death.  However 
a  man  may  live  in  unbelief,  and  bid  defiance  to  all  the  sanctions 
of  refigion  and  the  dictates  of  reason,  he  cannot  die  an  infidel. 
In  that  hour  of  truth  and  reality  there  is  no  sporting  with 
eternity,  it  has  him  by  the  hand,  nor  can  all  the  sophisms  of 
infidelity  remove  its  never  ending  grasp. 

By  looking  to  this  appointed  end  the  Christian  becomes 
famiUar  with  it.     Often  does  he,  in  thought,  bring  it  all  before 


DILIGENCE    IN   RELIGION.  385 

him,  and  acts  over  his  death  as  a  scene  through  which  he  must 
pass  ;  often  is  it  so  realized  in  the  deep  abstraction  of  his  spirit, 
as  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  the  reality,  until  the  mind 
reacts  and  returns  him  once  more  to  the  shadows  of  time — for 
such,  indeed,  they  are,  and  never  more  truly  considered  as  such 
than  when  coming  back  from  such  a  contemplation.  I  know 
not,  my  brethren,  that  this  was  exactly  St.  Paul's  meaning 
when  he  said  to  the  Corinthians,  /  protest  hy  your  rejoicing 
which  I  have  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  /  die  daily.  But  every 
true  Christian  must,  more  or  less,  have  met  the  hour  of  his 
death  in  those  solemn  meditations  which  bring  near  the  end  of 
his  faith  and  the  enjoyment  of  his  ho{3e  of  immortality. 

Being  thus  familiar  with  it,  he  prepares  for  it  as  for  a 
necessary  journey — he  lays  in  those  supplies,  and  provides  those 
accommodations,  which  will  enable  him  to  pass  through  its 
dark  valley  with  light  and  safety.  His  lamp  lighted  up  at  the 
promises  of  God's  faithful  word,  shows  him  his  Redeemer's 
footsteps,  and  guides  him  through  its  gloomy  shadow  to  the 
bright  uncreated  light  of  his  Father's  presence.  The  Lord  is 
his  shepherd,  and  is  loith  him  ;  therefore,  he  fears  no  evil. 

In  the  serious  contemplation  of  death,  the  Christian  learns 
the  true  estimate  of  temporal  things.  He,  therefore,  holds  them 
as  accommodations  of  God's  goodness  to  our  present  condition, 
and  is  thankful  for  his  share  of  them.  As  they  are  to  be 
accounted  for  as  his  Master's  goods,  he  strives  to  be  faithful  in 
the  management  and  diligent  in  the  improvement  of  them.  He, 
therefore,  so  uses  the  world  as  not  abusing  it ;  neither  wastino- 
it  in  revelling  and  dissipation,  nor  hoarding  in  anxious  distrust  or 
idolatrous  love,  but  according  to  ability  and  opportunity  he 
gives  his  Lord's  money  to  the  exchangers  in  the  persons  of  the 
necessitous  and  suffering,  thus  laying  up  a  good  foundation 
against  the  time  to  come,  that  he  may  lay  hold  on  eternal  life. 

Above  all,  in  the  certainty  of  the  event  and  the  uncertainty 
of  the  time,  seriously  considered,  the  Christian  learns  that  he 
has  here  no  continuing  city.  He,  therefore,  considers  himself 
as  a  stranger  and  a  pilgrim  upon  earth,  and  is  hastening  his 
return  to  another  and  a  better  country.  His  thoughts  are  at 
his  home,  with  its  loved  society,  its  unspeakable  enjoyments,  its 

Vol.  n.— 49 


386  DILIGENCE    IN   RELIGION. 

everlasting  reward.  In  all  that  God  hath  done  for  him  and 
wrought  in  him  here,  he  hath  a  foretaste  of  the  greater  and 
better  things  which  shall  he  conferred  on  him  there.  In  the 
love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  he  realizes  the  pledge  of  all 
needed  mercy.  In  the  cross  of  Christ,  he  sees  justice  satisfied, 
sin  atoned  for,  and  God  reconciled.  In  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
he  sees  death  vanquished  and  life  and  immortality  brought  to 
light.  Thus  delivered  from  the  bondage  created  by  the  fear  of 
death,  he  meets  his  last  enemy  without  dismay,  and  asks  him, 
O  death  !  where  is  thy  sting  1   0  grave  !  where  is  thy  victory  ? 

Secondly,  as  the  Christian  is  looking  for  death,  it  is  because 
this  is  to  him  the  commencement  of  another  life.  He  is,  there- 
fore, looking  for  what  must  follow  it,  which  St.  Peter  here  calls 
the  coming  of  the  day  of  God. 

This  is  the  day  which  shall  finally  determine  the  everlasting 
condition  of  men  and  angels  for  happiness  or  misery.  It  is, 
therefore,  called  the  day  of  Gov — the  great  and  terrible  day  of 
the  Lord — the  day  of  God's  vengeance ;  because  on  that  day  the 
Almighty  will  vindicate  the  equity  of  all  his  ways  and  dealings 
with  his  creatures — because  he  will  then  convince  the  xmgodly 
of  all  their  ungodly  deeds  which  they  have  ungodly  committedf 
and  of  all  their  hard  speeches  which  ungodly  sinners  have  spoken 
against  him ;  and  because  on  that  day  he  will  execute  his 
righteous  vengeance  in  the  perdition  of  ungodly  men. 

It  is  also  called  the  last  day,  because  it  will  be  the  last  in 
which  time  will  be  measured  by  the  revolution  of  the  heavenly 
bodies.  As  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  first  day  at 
the  creation,  so,  in  like  manner,  will  the  evening  and  the  morn- 
ing of  this  day  be  the  last  at  the  close  of  this  world,  and  will 
usher  in  eternity.  Then  shall  the  sun  set  in  darkness  and  the 
moon  withdraw  her  light,  the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven,  and 
the  heavens  themselves  being  on  fire  shall  be  dissolved. 

It  is,  moreover,  called  the  day  of  judgment,  because  God  ivill 
then  judge  the  world  in  righteousness  by  that  Man  whom  he  hath 
ordained,  whereof  he  hath  given  assurance  to  all  men  in  that  he  hath 
raised  him  from  the  dead. 

To  this  day  the  Christian  knows  that  he  must  come  ;  it  is, 
therefore,  much  in  his  thoughts.     The  awful  business  then  to 


DILIGENCE     IN    RELIGION.  3S7 

be  transacted,  the  infinite  consequences  then  to  follow,  enter 
into  his  constant  meditations.  They  are,  indeed,  solemn  and 
heart-sinking  subjects;  but  to  the  believer  the  awe  belonging  to 
them  is  mixed  up  with  a  good  hope,  a  joyful  assurance,  yea,  in 
some,  with  a  longing  desire  to  come  to  it.  /  knoiv  in  whom  I 
have  believed,  and  am  persuaded  thai  he  is  able  to  keep  that  which 
I  have  committed  unto  him  against  that  day.  The  power  and 
grace  of  his  Redeemer  enable  the  Christian  to  contemplate  even 
the  terrors  of  the  Lord  in  that  day,  without  sinking  under  them. 
His  power  is  almighty,  his  love  is  stronger  than  death,  and  he  is 
able  to  save  to  the  utltrmost  all  ivho^ome  unto  God  by  him. 

Thirdly,  as  death  and  judgment  enter  much  into  the 
meditations  of  the  Christian,  they  necessarily  lead  him  to  the 
last  particular  to  which  he  looks,  and  that  is,  the  rest  which 
remainethfor  the  people  o/God. 

This  is  that  recompense  of  reward  to  which  he  Is  taught  to 
look,  in  expectation  of  which  he  is  encouraged  to  persevere, 
and  in  the  enjoyment  of  which  there  will  be  no  limit.  Imagina- 
tion, indeed,  cannot  measure  it,  nor  language  express  it,  yet  it  is 
securely  laid  up  for  those  who  seek  it ;  it  is  rest  with  God — it 
is  a  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  hp.avens.  It  is  a  crown 
of  glory  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  shall  give  to  all 
them  that  love  his  appearing.  It  is  an  inheritance  incorruplibhy 
undfjiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away. 

n.  Secondly,  let  us  inquire  into  the  effect  of  such  necessary, 
though  oftentimes  alarming  and  painful  meditations. 

I  know  of  nothing,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  so  overwhelm- 
ing to  the  mind  of  man,  as  the  first  discovery  made  to  the  sinner 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  that  he  is  exposed  through  death,  to  the 
righteous  judgment  of  God.  There  is  a  quality  in  this  percep- 
tion of  divine  things  which  cannot  be  described  ;  it  must  be  felt, 
and  all  who  have  experienced  it,  and  now  hear  me,  know  that  it 
is  so.  But  it  does  not  follow,  as  some  very  injuriously  assert,  that 
none  have  good  ground  to  trust  to,  in  their  conversion  to  God,  but 
such  as  have  been  extraordinarily  awakened  and  turned  round 
from  sin  ;  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  great  injury  has  bten 
done  to  the  cause  of  religion  by  this  erroneous  view  of  the 
doctrine  of  conversion,  because  its  tendency  has  been  to  cause 


388  DILIGENCE    IN     RELIGION. 

men  rather  to  look  for  the  extraordinary  than  to  use  diligently 
the  ordinary  means  of  grace  to  this  end.  Now  these  oidinary 
means  are  the  serious  consideration,  and  the  faithful  application, 
of  what  God  hath  revealed  for  our  iuforn)ation,  and  commanded 
for  our  observance.  And  we  have  but  to  ask  ouiseives,  my 
friends,  what  we  might  reasonably  expect  from  the  discoveries 
of  revelation  honestly  considered,  to  form  some  estimate  of  the 
great  injury  arising  from  this  neglect.  Let  us  but  ask  ourselves, 
my  brethren,  to  what  end  God  hath  spoken,  unless  to  inform  his 
creatures  1  To  what  end  hath  he  commanded,  unless  to  require 
our  obedience  1  And  why  are  means  provided,  but  that  we 
should  use  them  ?  On  any  other  principle,  the  great  superstruc- 
ture of  revelation  is  a  nullity. 

With  this  fixed  in  the  mind,  we  may  form  some  judgment  of 
the  effect  which  would  be  produced  on  the  conscience  of  an 
out-breaking  sinner,  by  the  serious  consideration  of  the  conse- 
quences of  death  and  judgment  to  himself,  as  set  forth  in  the 
word  of  God.  Can  he  entertain  such  meditations  seriously, 
and  yet  retain  his  sins  ?  Can  he  view  himself  as  hourly  exposed 
to  eternal  death,  without  alarm,  without  some  attempt  to  escape 
from  horrors  which  cannot  be  uttered  ]  Can  he  see  such  a  rich 
provision  made  for  his  recovery,  pardon,  and  salvation,  as  the 
gospel  is  filled  with,  and  not  be  drawn  to  make  an  effort  to  attain 
it  ?  I  hardly  can  think  it.  We  are  none  of  us  so  hardy  as  to 
prefer,  seriously,  perdition  to  salvation.  I  know  there 'are 
thousands  who  have  heard  all  these  things,  and  are  yet  unaffected 
by  them  ;  but  1  also  know  that  they  have  never  formed  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  one  hour's  serious  meditation,  never  have  yet 
been  formed  into  prayer,  and  therefore  it  is,  that  they  are  with- 
out effect.  The  word  of  God  has  not  lost  its  quality  of  being 
quick  and  poicerful^  and  sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword.  The 
means  of  grace  have  not  lost  their  efficacy,  no.r  has  God  with- 
drawn his  promise  to  bless  them  in  the  use.  But  men  have 
found  out  the  fashion  of  doing  without  them,  and  vainly  expect 
to  obtain  the  end  without  the  means.  But  until  they  obtain  a 
crop  without  waiting  and  working  for  it,  the  expectation  is 
equally  vain  on  the  subject  of  religion. 

As,  therefore,   it  must  be  evident  that  the  effect  would  be 


DILIGENCE    IN    RELIGION.  389 

favourable  to  all  descriptions  of  men,  did  they  but  allow  their 
tlioughis  to  dwell  with  seriousness  on  the  high  interests  of  eter- 
nity, as  revealed  in  the  word  of  God,  I  would  press  upon  all 
who  have  hitherto  been  negligent  in  this  behalf,  to  ask  them- 
selves where  it  must  end,  and  to  reflect  how  every  way  inexcus- 
able it  is,  in  a  rational  being,  to  risk  the  sanctions  of  the  gospel 
upon  any  other  ground  than  a  sincere  and  persevering  effort  to 
obtain  its  grace  and  secure  its  hope.  Where  this  endeavour 
has  been  made  and  failed,  then  may  its  efhcacy  be  doubted,  and 
its  use  superseded  ;  but  not  till  then.  In  other  words,  when 
God  is  found  forgetful  of  his  promise  to  the  striving  soul,  then 
may  men  be  excused  for  turning  away  from  the  awakeniug 
truths  of  death  and  judgment,  and  for  the  neglect  of  those  means 
of  grace  which  are  provided  to  give  us  the  victory  over  death 
and  a  crown  of  eternal  life. 

Essential,  my  brethren,  as  the  entertainment  of  these  solemn 
truths  is  to  our  entrance  upon  religion  at  all ;  to  our  continu- 
ance in  the  strait  and  narrow  way,  they  are  indispensable. 

To  counteract  the  ensnaring  influence  of  the  world  and  its 
deceits,  encountering  us  at  every  stage  and  step  of  our  journey, 
the  faith  of  eternal  things  is  alone  competent.  This  is  the  vic- 
tory xckich  overcometh  the  ivorld,  even  our  faith.  But  faith  will 
flag,  will  faulter,  will  die  away  if  not  kept  in  continual  exercise. 
Forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto 
the  things  which  are  before,  I  press  towards  the  mark,  says  St. 
Paul.  In  like  manner  let  every  Christian  keep  constantly  be- 
fore him  the  things  which  are  not  seen — which  are  above,  where 
Christ  ever  liveth  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  The  same  are 
the  only  effectual  means  to  obtain  the  victory  over  ourselves 
and  all  other  enemies.  To  be  looking  for  the  day  of  God  ;  to 
step  out  of  the  body,  as  it  were,  and  contemplate  a  burning 
world  and  blazing  heavens  ;  to  see  a  new  creation  come  forward, 
at  the  command  of  God,  in  which  nothing  sinful  or  unclean 
shall  have  place  ;  to  behold  a  lake  of  fire,  in  which  all 
wickedness  shall  be  confined  in  daikness  and  misery  for  ever 
and  to  realize,  that  in  one  or  the  other  of  these  must  be  hii 
portion,  quickens  the  Christian  to  make  his  calling  and  election 
sure.    Thus  the  saints  of  old  exercised  themselves,  my  brethren. 


390  DILIGENCE    IN    RELIGION. 

Wherefore,  beloved,  seeing  ye  also  look  for  such  things,  be  dili- 
gent, that  ye  may  be  found  of  him  in  peace,  loithout  spot,  and 
blameless. 

I  will  now  conclude  with  some  practical  reflections  as  an 
application  of  the  subject. 

And  is  it  so,  my  dear  hearers,  that  in  the  midst  of  life  we  are 
in  death,  that  death  consij^ns  us  to  judi^ment,  and  judgment  to 
heaven  or  to  hell  for  ever  1  Are  we  all  certain  that  a  few  years 
more  will  be  the  utmost  extent  of  the  longest  life  among  us,  and 
are  we  all  uncertain  whether  the  next  day,  or  even  hour,  may 
not  close  our  account,  and  transmit  us  to  the  judgment  1  Are 
there  no  instancesof  sudden  death  in  our  memories,  or  have  we 
an  exemption  from  such  a  call  1  Can  each  of  us  call  to  mind 
some  relation,  friend,  or  neighbour,  who  not  long  since  was 
with  us,  but  is  now  in  the  world  of  spirits  ]  How,  then,  ought 
such  considerations  to  affect  us  ?  O  look  forward  to  that 
hour  and  think,  would  you  not  wish  to  be  ready  ?  Would  you 
then  wish  to  look  back  on  a  life  spent  in  vice  and  dissipation, 
in  neglect  of  God  and  your  soul  1  Would  you  then  desire  to 
find  God  not  reconciled,  your  sins  unpardoned,  no  Saviour 
sought  unto  1  Yet  what  but  this  can  be  expected  by  all  who 
neglect  the  gospel  ]  O  that  you  were  loise,  that  you  understood 
this,  that  you  would  consider  your  latter  end  ! 

Again,  the  day  of  God  is  drawing  nearer  and  nearer,  when 
the  voice  of  the  archangel  and  the  trump  of  God  shall  call  the 
dust  of  the  earth  to  judgment.  And  must  we  all  be  there  before 
the  judgment  seat  of  Christ,  dear  friends,  young  and  old,  rich 
and  poor,  bond  and  free,  with  no  distinction  but  from  our  lives  ? 
Yes,  we  must  all  meet  there,  and  receive  according  to  the  deeds 
done  in  this  body.  How,  then,  would  we  wish  to  be  found  of 
him  in  that  day  ?  In  peace  or  at  war]  O  remember,  my  dear 
hearers,  that  there  is  no  neutral  ground  there  :  if  we  are  not  at 
peace  with  God,  and  that  peace  ratified  here  on  earth,  we  are 
at  war,  and  must  be  treated  as  enemies.  And  remember  that  no 
sinner  ever  found  peace  with  God  but  through  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  accepted  as  he  is  ofTered  in  the  gospel,  and  received 
by  faith.  And  where  would  you  wish  to  be  placed  on  that  awful 
day,  on  the  right  hand  or  on  the  left  1     With  what  sentence  to 


DILIGENCE    IN   RELIGION.  39l 

be  greeted  by  your  Judge,  Depart  from  me  ye  cursed,  or,  Come  ye 
blessed  F  Yet  we  shall  all  hear  these  mighty  words,  and  feel 
the  effect  of  them  for  ever.  No  repentance  will  then  avail ;  no 
prayer  will  then  he  heard.  JYow  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the 
day  of  salvation.  To-day,  then,  if  you  will  hear  his  voice,  harden 
not  you  hearts.  Listen  to  tlie  truth  that  would  save  you.  Flee 
to  the  mercy  that  is  not  yet  shut  against  your  prayers.  Entertain 
the  solemn  meditations  of  eternity,  and  learn  that  you  are 
immortal,  through  mortality. 

Lastly,  a  blessed,  joyful,  and  glorious  eternity  with  God  in 
heaven,  or  a  cursed,  despaii  ing,  and  everlasting  perdition  with 
devils  and  damned  spirits  in  the  torments  of  hell,  await  us  all. 
What  say  we,  then,  to  these  things,  my  hearers  1  Have  you  a 
choice,  a  preference,  and  what  is  it]  Have  you  asked  your- 
selves the  question  1  Have  you  considered  it  1  Have  you 
counted  up  what  it  is  to  be  happy  or  miserable  for  ever  1  Or 
have  you  postponed  it,  as  s  )methingat  a  great  distance,  and  that 
does  not  concern  you  in  the  days  while  you  can  indulge  in  the 
propensities  of  the  flesh,  in  the  vanities  of  the  world  1  Rejoice,  O 
young  man,  in  thy  youth,  and  icalk  in  the  sight  of  thine  eyes,  and 
desires  of  thine  heart.  But  know,  that  for  all  these  things  God  will 
call  thee  into  judgment.  Or  have  you  settled  it  upon  the  infidel 
principle,  that  God  is  too  merciful  to  punish  men  for  everl 
Indeed,  and  how  know  you  that  1  See  you  no  punishment,  no 
misery  here,  none  that  endures  throughout  the  period  of  human 
life,  and,  therefore,  may  just  as  reasonably  endure  through 
another  and  an  eternal  existence  1  Oh  !  at  what  a  tremendous 
risk  will  men  try  to  be  wise  above  what  is  written,  and  harden 
their  hearts  against  the  awful  events  of  death,  judgment,  eternity, 
the  wrath  of  God  omnipotent,  the  irreversible  sentence,  the 
bottomless  pit,  the  lake  of  fire,  the  miseries  of  the  damned  !  O, 
my  dear  hearers,  let  God  be  ti  ue,  and  every  man  a  liar  who 
would  gainsay  his  word,  his  faithful,  warning  word,  which 
declares — whatever  the  wicked  may  say  and  hope  to  the  contrary 
— that  impenitent  sinners  shall  have  their  portion  where  the  icorm 
never  dies,  and  the  fire  never  shall  be  quenched. 

Seeing,  then,  my  Christian  brethren,  that  we  look  for  such 
things,  that  they  are  most  surely  believed  by  us.  What  manner 


392  DILIGENCE    IN   RELIGION. 

of  persons  ought  toe  to  be  in  all  holy  conversation  and  godliness  t 
How  ought  our  deportment  in  the  world  to  indicate  that  we  are 
not  of  the  world  1  Alas  !  alas  !  because  the  love  of  many  waxes 
cold,  iniquity  abounds  ]  Let  these  solemn  truths,  then,  bring 
us  back  to  what  we  should  be.  Let  us  dwell  upon  them,  and 
realize  them,  and  act  for  our  eternal  interests  with  at  least  as 
much  zeal  and  industry  as  we  do  for  our  earthly  accommoda- 
tions, profits,  and  pleasures.  Let  not  the  name  of  God  be  pro- 
faned through  our  lukewarmness,  coldness,  and  deadness  in  our 
religious  profession.  The  veriest  sinner  in  the  world  knows 
how  we  ought  to  be  affected,  and  to  walk  in  life,  under  the 
professed  belief  of  the  gospel.  When,  therefore,  he  sees  pro- 
fessing Christians  under  the  declared  expectation  of  heaven  or 
hell,  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  walking  according 
to  the  course  of  this  world,  he  is  not  only  fortified  in  unbelief, 
but  filled  with  contempt  for  religion.  Let  this  reproach,  then, 
be  put  away  from  us,  my  brethren.  Yet  a  little  while  and  he  that 
shall  come  will  come,  and  will  not  tcirry.  Let  us,  then,  prepare  to 
meet  our  God,  that  when  he  shall  appear,  we  may  be  found  of 
him  in  peace,  without  spot,  and  blameless. 


SERMON  XXXV. 

THE    LOVE    OF     THE    WORLD    INCOMPATIBLE    WITH    THE    LOVE 
OF    GOD. SACRAMENTAL. 

1  John  ii.  15. 

"  Love  not  the  worltl,  neither  tlie  things  that  are  in  the  world.     If  any  man  love  the 
world  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him." 

Amidst  the  various  temptations  which  surround  us,  my 
brethren,  some  are  more  immediate  and  more  powerful  than 
others,  not  only  in  themselves,  but  also  in  the  depraved  att'ec- 
tions  of  our  cori'upt  hearts.  Of  those  temptations,  that  which 
in  Scripture  language  is  called  the  world  appears  to  possess  the 
greatest  as  well  as  the  most  general  influence  over  mankind. 
Hence  the  frequency  and  earnestness  with  whfeh  the  counsel 
and  warning  of  God's  most  holy  word  is  directed  to  this  point  ; 
and  the  danger  to  be  apprehended  from  undue  preference  of 
and  over  engagement  with  its  business  or  its  pleasures,  is  exhibit- 
ed under  the  striking  contrast  of  things,  which,  from  their  very 
nature,  must  perish  and  come  to  an  end,  and  of  things  equally, 
indeed  more  certainly,  attainable  by  us  which  shall  endure  and 
continue  for  ever. 

Among  those  warnings  my  text  holds  a  very  conspicuous 
place.  And  as  it  presents  to  our  consideration  the  solemn  obliga- 
tion to  renounce  and  overcome  the  world,  and  to  separate 
themselves  from  its  unhallowed  pursuits,  which  all  baptized 
persons  have  come  under,  and  all  professing  Christians  have 
repeatedly  renewed,  and  we  are  this  day  once  more  to  renew  in 
the  most  solemn  manner  in  the  sacrament  of  the  death  of  Christ, 
I  trust  it  will  be  a  profitable  improvement  of  the  occasion,  to  lay 
before  you  such  a  plain  but  necessarily  brief  exposition  of  this 
unpalatable  but  vital  subject,  as  shall,  with  the  blessing  of  God, 
fasten  upon  the  consciences  of  professing  Christians  their  indis- 
pensable duty,  and  awaken  unbelievers  to  the  dangerous  and 

Vol.  II.— 50 


394  THE    LOVE    OF    THE    WORLD 

unprofitable  nature  of  those  pursuits  whose  certain  and  declared 
end  is  irretrievable  perdition. 

With  this  view,  I  shall, 

First,  inquire  what  is  to  be  understood  by  the  word  worl^ 
as  here  used. 

Secondly,  I  will  endeavour  to  point  out  what  kind  of  con- 
duct exhibits  that  love  of  the  world,  and  of  the  things  that  are  in 
it,  which  my  text  declares  to  be  incompatible  with  sincerity  of 
religious  profession  here,  expressed  by  the  hve  oj  the  Father. 

Thirdly,  I  will  conclude  with  some  considerations  calculated 
to  enforce  the  exhortation  of  my  text  upon  the  communicants 
of  the  Church. 

Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world.  If 
any  man  love  the  world  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  inquire  what  is  to  be  understood  by  the  word 
world,  as  here  used. 

That  the  word  world  is  applied  in  various  senses  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, must  be  evident  to  all  who  have  any  acquaintance  with 
the  contents  cf  the  sacred  volume.  Sometimes  it  signifies  the 
frame  of  the  material  world,  or  visible  creation,  as  in  the  24th 
Psalm — The  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  fulness  thereof;  the  world, 
and  they  that  dwell  therein.  Sometimes  it  is  used  to  denote  the 
race  of  mankind  in  general,  as  in  the  3d  chapter  of  St.  John's 
Gospel — God  so  loved  the  world  as  to  send  his  Son  to  save  it. 
In  other  instances,  the  wicked  and  ungodly  are  called  the  world, 
as  in  our  Lord's  discourse  with  his  twelve  disciples  before  his 
Passion,  in  the  15th  chapter  of  the  same  Gospel — If  ye  were  of 
the  world  the  world  would  love  his  own ;  but  because  ye  are  not 
of  the  loorld,  but  I  have  chosen  you  out  of  the  world,  therefore  the 
world  hateth  you.  In  other  places  it  is  applied  to  the  pursuits 
and  occupations  of  men  in  the  present  life,  whether  innocent  or 
criminal,  but  chiefly  the  latter,  as  in  the  words  of  my  text — 
Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world,  and  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans — Be  not  conformed  to  this  world. 

The  proper  meaning  of  the  word  in  any  particular  place, 
therefore,  must  be  determined  by  the  context ;  and  applying  this 
rule  to  the  word  world,  as  used  in  the  text,  and  in  the  chapter 
from  which  the  text  is  taken,  it  is  plain  that  Christians  are 


INCOMPATIBLE  WITH  THE  LOVE  OP  GOD.  395 

exhorted  against  allowing  their  desires  and  affections  to  become 
entangled,  and  their  exertions  over-engaged  with  the  things  that 
are  in  the  world.  And  what  those  things  are  which  are  thus 
dangerous  to  the  health  of  the  soul,  the  inspired  apostle  enu- 
merates under  the  threefold  description  of  the  lust  of  the  fleshy 
the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life. 

The  practical  meaning  of  the  word  world,  then,  as  here  used, 
must  be  understood  of  those  visible  and  sensible  things  which 
form,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  the  objects  of  our  desire  and 
pursuit,  and  the  subjects  of  our  trial  and  probation.  Many  of 
these  are  indispensable  to  our  subsistence,  as  the  necessary  occu- 
pations and  business  of  the  present  life,  whereby  alone  those 
blessings  and  comforts,  which  the  entrance  of  sin  into  the  world 
banished  from  the  spontaneous  productions  of  the  earth,  are  to 
be  obtained.  Some  are  objects  of  desire,  and  stimulate  to  indus- 
try by  the  gratification  and  enjoyment  which  they  yield  or  serve 
to  procure.  Others  are  rendered  necessary  by  the  condition  of 
the  world — as  the  honours  and  emoluments  of  those  offices  of 
power  and  trust  whereby  civil  government  is  conducted.  And  all 
of  them  are  in  themselves  good,  as  serving  to  maintain  the  state 
of  the  world;  perfectly  consistent  with  the  religious  duties  of 
redeemed  sinners  in  their  engagement  with  them,  yet  capable  of 
being  perverted,  and  of  becoming  the  fruitful  occasion  of  sin  and 
condemnation  by  the  abuse. 

In  the  combined  influence  of  these  indispensable,  desirable, 
and  necessary  things,  we  learn,  my  brethren,  what  that  world 
is,  against  the  love  of  which  we  are  so  earnestly  warned  and 
exhorted.  And  as  they  are  objects  of  desire  and  attainment  to 
all,  they  form  a  just  measure  of  moral  condition  in  the  sight  of 
God — according  to  the  preference  given  to  them,  to  the  means 
used  to  obtain  them,  and  to  the  application  made  of  them  when 
obtained. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  point  out  what  kind  of  conduct  exhibits 
that  love  of  the  world  and  of  the  things  that  are  in  it,  which  my 
text  declares  to  be  incompatible  with  sincerity  of  religious  pro- 
fession here,  expressed  by  the  love  of  the  Father. 

If  we  bear  in  mind,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  to  what  descrip- 
tion of  persons  this  and  the  other  epistles  of  the  apostles  of 


396  THE  LOVE  OF    THE  WORLD 

Christ  were  addressed,  it  will  present  two  points  of  discri- 
mination in  moral  condition,  of  very  awakening  interest  to 
the  two  classes  into  which  the  world  called  Christian  is  divided, 
and  very  helpful  to  a  right  understanding  and  safe  application 
of  this  part  of  my  subject,  and  of  the  contents  of  the  epistles 
generally. 

Now  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  epistles  were 
addressed  exclusively  to  believers  in  Christ,  whose  faith  in  him 
was  publicly  professed  ;  who  were  taken  into  union  with  Christ 
by  the  sacrament  of  baptism  ;  constituted  thereby  members  of 
his  body,  the  Church ;  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  the  house- 
hold of  faith,  in  the  sacrament  of  his  death,  in  the  sanctifying 
operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  the  precious  promises  of 
Almighty  God,  made  to  them  in  Christ.  This  being  unde- 
niably the  case,  the  two  points  of  discrimination  in  moral  con- 
dition presented  to  our  consideration,  are  the  following  : 

First,  that  none  were  considered  in  union  with  Christ,  and 
entitled  to  the  promises  of  the  gospel,  but  those  only  who  were 
in  open  communion  with  the  visible  Church,  and  with  the 
apostles  as  the  representatives  of  Christ  upon  earth.  There 
not  being  a  single  instance  in  the  whole  New  Testament  of  any 
who  were  accounted  and  acknowledged  as  believers  in  Christ 
after  the  day  of  Pentecost,  but  such  only  as  followed  up  their 
baptismal  j)rofession  by  continuing  steadfast  in  the  apostles^  doc- 
trine and  fellowship,  and  in  breaking  of  bread,  and  in  prayers. 

Secondly,  the  exhortations  to  watchfulness  against  sin  in 
general,  and  against  particular  temptations  to  sin,  and  the  warn- 
ings so  frequently  repeated,  that  the  promises  and  privileges  of 
the  gospel  would  all  be  forfeited  by  remissness  in  their  duty, 
and  disregard  of  the  obligations  entered  into  at  their  baptism — 
being  addressed  exclusively  to  Christians,  is  conclusive  testi- 
mony against  all  absolute  and  unconditional  doctrine  in  the 
religion  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  strongest  conceiv- 
able argument  that  Christians,  as  such,  should  give  all  diligence 
to  make  their  calling  and  election  sui  e,  lest  they  fail  of  the  grace 
of  God. 

The  inquiry,  then,  being  into  a  particular  course  of  conduct, 
by  a  particular  class  of  persons,  under  special  and  declared 


INCOMPATIBLE  WITH  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD.       397 

obligations,  it  will  be  the  more  easy  for  me  to  point  out,  and  for 
you  to  apprehend,  whereby  is  exhibited,  that  love  of  the  world 
and  of  the  things  that  are  in  it,  which  is  incompatible  with  the 
profession  of  a  Christian.  And,  as  our  engagenu-nt  with  the 
world  is  comprehended  under  the  two  heads  of  its  business  and 
its  pleasures,  I  shall  confine  myself  to  them  as  presenting  the 
most  profitable,  because  the  most  necessary  application  of  my 
text. 

First,  then,  as  respects  our  worldly  business. 

Christians,  having  the  same  wants  with  other  men,  are  obliged 
to  resort  to  some  active  means  to  supply  them.  Indeed,  the 
first  penalty  imposed  upon  man  after  he  became  mortal,  was 
labour — In  the  siceat  of  thy  face  shall  thou  eat  bread,  until  thou 
return  unto  the  ground.  And  in  some  way,  though  in  very 
various  manners  and  degrees,  all  have  to  submit  to  this  univer- 
sal law.  But  if  the  necessary  business  of  life  is  pursued  by  the 
believer  with  the  same  views  and  to  the  same  ends  as  by  the 
unbeliever  ;  if  he  give  way  to  the  temptations  of  gain,  or  of 
ambition,  or  of  voluptuousness,  and  suffer  his  affections  to 
become  bound  down  to  the  things  that  are  in  the  world,  however 
lawful  in  themselves;  if  they  are  sought  after  for  their  own  sake, 
or  relied  upon  with  unhallowed  dependance ;  above  all,  if  his 
worldly  business  is  allowed  to  interfere  with  or  to  supercede 
the  care  of  his  soul,  as  he  differs  in  nothing  but  the  name  and 
mere  outward  profession  from  the  men  of  the  world,  who  have 
their  portion  in  this  life — he  is  classed  with  them  by  that  righteous 
Judge  who  searcheth  the  hearts  of  the  children  of  men,  and 
determines  the  moral  condition  of  his  creatures,  not  by  their 
professions,  but  by  the  motives  and  ends  which  actuate  and 
govern  their  conduct. 

To  fallen  beings — whose  hearts  are  corrupt,  whose  affections 
are  estranged  from  God,  in  whom  flesh  and  sense  predominate, 
who  by  faith  only  can  pass  beyond  the  boundary  of  the  present 
life,  and  who  can  arrive  at  faith  and  hope  towards  God  no 
otherwise  than  by  the  preventing  grace  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  danger  is  imminent  that  in  the  puisuits  and  occupations  of 
time,  eternity  should  be  overlooked.  Hence  the  deep  interest 
manifested  by  our  Lord  himself,  and  by  his  inspired  apostles, 


398  THE    LOVE    OF    THE    WORLC 

that  all  who  profess  and  call  themselves  Christians,  should  be 
constantly  on  their  guard  against  the  seducing-  influence  of 
temporal  condition  in  the  temptations  presented  hy  the  neces- 
sary business  of  life,  and  by  the  still  more  insidious  and  en- 
croaching operation  of  the  riches,  honours,  and  pleasures  of 
the  world  ;  and  hence  the  plain,  earnest,  and  repeated  warnings 
in  the  word  of  God  against  the  danger,  both  direct  and  indirect, 
arising  from  this  cause. 

As  a  man's  life  consisleth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things 
which  he  possesseth,  our  blessed  Lord  thence  derives  the  various 
cautions  which  are  recorded  for  our  learning : — Take  heed,  and 
beware  of  covetousness ;  Take  heed  to  yourselves,  lest  at  any  time 
your  hearts  be  overcharged  with  surfeiting,  and  drunkenness,  and 
cares  of  this  life  ;  What  is  a  man  profiled  if  he  shall  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul?  Hoio  hardly  shall  they  that 
have  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  /  It  is  easier  for  a  camel 
to  go  through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God.  And  I  say  unto  you  make  to  yourselves 
friends  of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness  ;  for,  if  ye  have  not  been 
faithful  in  the  unrighteous  mammon,  who  will  commit  to  your  trust 
the  true  riches  ? 

St.  Paul's  testimony  to  the  danger,  to  Christians,  from  the 
temptations  incident  to  the  business  of  the  world,  is  equally  clear 
and  direct.  The  love  of  money,  says  he,  is  the  root  of  all  evil. 
They  that  will  be  rich  fall  into  temptation  and  a  snare,  and  into 
many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts  which  drown  men  in  destruction  and 
perdition.  Hence,  this  apostle  classes  covetousness  with  idolatry, 
and  includes  it  among  those  sins  which  exclude  men  from  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  For  this  ye  knoiv,  says  he,  writing  to  the 
Eijhesians,  that  no  whoremonger,  nor  unclean  person,  nor  covetous 
MAN,  who  is  an  idolater,  hath  any  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  and  o/God.  To  the  operation  of  this  inordinate  appe- 
tite, likewise,  he  ascribes  the  difficulties  and  obscurities  charged 
against  the  gospel  by  those  who  for  this  cause  rejected  it.  // 
our  gospel  be  hid,  says  he,  that  is,  hard  to  understand,  it  is  hid 
through  the  things  which  perish,  that  is,  the  profits  and  the  plea- 
sures of  the  world,  whereby,  that  is,  by  the  influence  of  which, 
the  God  of  this  icorld  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them  which  believe 


INCOMPATIBLE  WITH  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD.       399 

not,  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel  0/ Christ,  who  is  the  image 
of  God,  should  shine  unto  them.  And  hence  his  exhortations  to 
the  Churches  under  his  care — So  to  use  this  world  as  not  abusing 
it.  To  be  content  with  such  things  as  they  have.  To  set  their  affec- 
tions on  things  above,  and  not  on  things  on  the  earth;  and,  as 
including  all,  not  to  be  conformed  to  this  world. 

St.  James,  also,  sets  forth  the  obstructions  thrown  in  the  way 
of  religious  attainment,  by  over-engagement  with  the  things  that 
are  in  the  world,  in  very  strong  language.  Ye  lust  and  have  not ; 
ye  have  not,  because  ye  ask  not ;  ye  ask  and  receive  not,  because  ye 
ask  amiss,  that  ye  may  consume  it  upon  your  lusts.  Ye  adulterers 
and  adulteresses,  know  ye  not  that  the  friendship  of  the  world  is 
enmity  with  God  1  Whosoever,  therefore,  will  be  the  friend  of  the 
world  is  the  enemy  of  God.  And,  in  the  same  earnest  manner, 
he  denounces  the  ruinous  consequences  of  riches  kept  by  the 
owners  thereof  to  their  hurt.  Go  to  now  ye  rich  men,  weep  and 
howl  for  your  miseries  that  shall  come  upon  you  ;  your  riches  are 
corrupted,  your  gold  and  silver  is  cankered,  and  the  rust  of  them 
shall  be  a  tcitness  against  you,  and  shall  eat  your  flesh  as  it  were  fire. 

And  St.  John  confirms  the  whole  by  declaring,  as  in  the 
words  of  my  text,  that  over-engagement  with  the  business  of  the 
world,  however  lawful  and  necessary  the  business  may  be,  is  such 
evidence  of  a  preference  of  the  world,  as  ranks  its  unhappy 
object  as  the  enemy  of  God — If  any  man  love  the  world,  the  love 
of  the  Father  is  not  in  him. 

Such  is  the  clear  and  convincing  testimony  of  divine  truth, 
my  brethren,  to  the  danger  arising  from  our  necessary  con- 
nexion with  the  business  of  the  world.  The  principle  is  plain  and 
obvious  to  every  apprehension,  and  there  can  be  no  dilHculty  in 
every ^an's  so  applying  it  to  his  own  conduct,  in  connexion 
with  the  motives  which  prompt  and  govern  that  conduct,  as 
readily  to  determine  whether  he  is  in  such  wise  a  lover  of  the 
world,  as  that  the  love  of  the  Father  cannot  be  the  real  temper 
of  his  soul.  And  should  any  be  disposed  to  think  it  a  hard  say- 
ing, and  to  repine  at  so  severe  a  probation,  let  such  reflect 
seriously  on  the  nature  of  moral  conduct — on  the  requisites 
to  a  state  of  trial — on  the  objects  to  be  attained  by  the  self- 
denial  and  watchfubess  to  be  exercised,  and  on  the  means 


400  THE    LOVE    OF    THE    WORLD 

bestowed  by  a  gracious  God  to  ensure  victory  to  the  faithful 
soldier  of  the  cross  in  this  warfare  ;  and  all  such  sinful  repining 
must  be  banished  from  the  thoughts,  as  alike  dishonourable  to 
God  and  injiiiious  to  ourselves.  But,  more  than  this.  When  it 
is  considered  that  what  Christians  are  warned  against  is  excess ia 
the  desire  and  abuse  in  the  application  of  the  things  that  are  in 
the  world,  whatever  would  oppose  itself  to  the  equity  of  his  deal- 
ing with  us  in  this  trial  of  our  faith  and  obedience,  must  stand 
condemned  as  no  less  unreasonable  than  sinful ;  and  the  conclu- 
sion be  universally  admitted,  that  it  is  only  by  the  most  inexcus- 
able neglect  of  the  warnings  of  God's  word,  of  the  solemn 
obligations  of  the  baptismal  covenant,  and  of  the  appointed 
means  of  grace,  that  the  world  prevails  against  so  many  immortal 
and  redeemed  souls,  and  robs  them  of  their  salvation,  under  the 
delusive  promises  of  its  most  uncertain  and  most  surely  perishing 
reward. 

Secondly,  as  respects  our  worldly  enjoyments. 

Labour  and  toll,  success  and  disappointment,  suffering  and 
death,  fill  up  the  chequered  scene  of  this  world's  pilgrimage. 
Great  travail  is  created  for  every  man,  and  an  heavy  yoke  is 
on  the  sons  of  Adam  from  the  day  that  they  go  out  of  their 
mother's  womb,  till  the  day  that  they  return  to  the  mother  of  all 
things  *  Yet  while  this  truth  will  be  felt  and  acknowledged 
by  all,  it  would  betray  a  most  ungrateful  and  unthankful  spirit 
to  overlook  the  many  sources  of  comfort  and  enjoyment  which 
the  love  of  God  hath  reserved  to  his  creatures,  out  of  the  wreck 
of  that  unmixed  happiness  in  which  they  were  originally  placed 
by  their  Creator.  And  were  men  but  as  wise  to  discern  and  as 
willing  to  be  instructed  wherein  their  true  happiness  consists, 
as  they  are  eager  to  pursue  pleasure  and  careless  to  consider 
the  quality  of  the  delight,  the  moral  condition  of  the  world 
would  speedily  change  sides,  and  the  balance  preponderate  in 
favour  of  enjoyment.  For,  God  giveth  us  all  things  richly  to 
enjoy,  and  mercifully  superadds  those  warnings  and  cautions 
which  render  enjoyment  rational,  sure,  and  lasting. 

Man,  then,  is  the  artificer  of  his  own  misery,  and  strange  as 

*  Eccles.  xl.  1. 


INCOMPATIBLE  WITH  THE  LOVE  OP  GOD.       401 

it  may  appear,  he  becomes  such  chiefly  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
happiness.  But,  as  it  is  the  happiness  of  a  fallen  nature  which 
he  pursues,  the  fruit  of  his  labour  is  disappointment.  The 
deluding  phantom  still  tlits  before  him,  still  escapes  his  eager 
grasp;  till  exhausted  passions  and  decayed  powers  Nield  to  that 
mortal  stroke  which  writes  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit  upon 
every  pursuit  unconnected  with  eternity. 

Of  the  things  that  are  in  the  world  which  may  be  classed 
under  the  head  of  enjoyments,  the  same  is  true  as  of  the  busi- 
ness of  the  world.  It  is  by  the  quality  of  its  nature,  the  degree  of 
desire  and  pursuit,  and  the  extent  of  its  indulgence,  that  the 
character  of  enjoyment,  and  the  evidence  thereby  given  of  moral 
condition,  is  determined.  Lovers  of  pleasures  more  than  lovers 
o/GoD — however  lawful  and  innocent  in  themselves  those  plea- 
sures may  be — give  thereby  as  direct  evidence  of  the  idolatry  of 
the  heart,  of  its  preference  of  the  creature  to  the  Creator,  as 
is  furnished  by  the  lovers  of  all  evil.  And  as  the  Searcher  of 
hearts  will  be  guided  by  this  rule  in  the  judgment  of  eternity,  it 
forms  the  standard  to  which  the  Christian  must  bring  his 
condition,  and  by  which  he  must  determine  the  allowable  or 
forbidden,  the  profitable  or  injurious  character  of  his  worldly 
enjoyments. 

The  pleasures  of  the  world  which  affect  most  directly  our 
religious  condition,  may  properly  be  reduced  to  these  two ;  the 
gratifications  of  sense,  and  the  gratifications  of  vanity.  The 
former  of  these,  will  include  the  appetites  and  passions  of  the 
body  ;  the  latter,  the  appetites  and  passions  of  the  mind. 

First,  then,  of  the  appetites  and  passions  of  the  body  it 
must  be  evident  that  the  abuse  only  can  be  criminal.  They  are 
necessary  parts  of  the  frame  of  our  being,  and  must  be  sup- 
plied in  their  various  wants  if  we  would  continue  to  exist. 
Hence  inordinate  desire  and  intemperate  indulgence  mark 
that  preference  of  carnal  delights  which  is  utterly  incom- 
patible with  any  serious  sense  of  religious  obligation,  and,  as  it 
tends  directly  to  destroy  the  body,  to  debase  the  faculties  of  the 
soul,  to  efface  the  image  of  God  stamped  upon  those  faculties, 
and  to  degrade  a  rational  being  to  the  level  of  the  beasts  that 
perish,  is  abhorred  of  God. 

Vol.  II.— 51 


402  -     THE    LOVE    OF    THE    WORLD 

Against  this  strong  propensity  and  ever-present  temptation, 
our  blessed  Lohd  directed  his  warning  when  he  said  to  his  disci- 
ples, Take  heed  lest  at  any  time  your  hearts  be  overcharged  loith 
surfeiting  and  drunkenness :  and  the  existing  state  of  society 
demonstrates,  how  thoroughly  sensual  hidulgence  blocks  up  the 
avenue  to  spiritual  attainment.  Against  this  danger,  the  Chris- 
tian has  to  arm  himself  with  the  greater  care,  in  proportion  as 
the  morality  of  the  world  has  approximated  to  the  standard  of  the 
gospel,  and  the  grossness  and  licentiousness  of  vice  has  been 
banished  from  the  decency  of  civilized  manners.  And  it  is  a 
point  of  Christian  obligation,  which  requires  to  be  the  more 
strongly  enforced,  because  of  the  prevailing  propensity  to 
measure  and  compare  our  moral  condition  rather  with  that  of 
those  around  us,  than  with  the  requirements  of  the  gospel  ;  and 
if  free  from  the  prothgate  debauchery  of  the  dissolute,  to  cherish 
a  Pharisaical  righteousness,  and  thank  God  that  we  are  not  as 
other  men  are. 

But,  my  brethren,  vice  changes  not  its  character  with  its 
dress.  However  decent  in  its  exterior,  however  refined  in  Us 
habiliments,  it  is  still  the  dark  and  deformed  thing  which  is  at 
enmity  with  God,  and  excludes  from  his  favour.  Where  the 
heart  is  set  upon  self-indulgence — whether  it  be  the  lust  of  the 
flesh,  or  the  lust  of  the  mind,  with  whatever  decency,  or  secrecy, 
or  profession  of  piety  it  maybe  covered,  it  is  impressed  with 
that  preference  of  regard  which  my  text  declares  incompatible 
with  the  love  of  God. 

In  the  external  similarity  of  moral  condition  and  conduct 
which  Chiistian  lands  exhibit,  it  would  be  both  tedious  and 
difficult  so  to  illustrate  the  general  principle  by  particular  exam- 
ples as  to  meet  the  variety  of  cases  to  which  it  applies.  The 
Christian,  however,  the  believer  in  God  and  in  Jesus  our  Lord, 
is  furnished  with  eflFectual  means  in  the  knowledge  of  his  own 
heart,  and  in  the  counsel  and  example  of  the  divine  word,  to 
determine  the  governing  principle  of  his  life  ;  and  he  is  bound 
by  the  worth  of  his  soul  to  apply  them  faithfully.  If  the  love 
of  the  Father  rules  his  heart,  the  apostolic  precept,  whether  ye 
eat  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  o/God,  will 
preside  over  the  gratifications  he  allows  to  the  appedtes  and 


INCOMPATIBLE    WITH    THE    LOVE    OF    GOD.  405J 

passions  of  his  mortal  nature,  and  will  increase  their  enjoyment 
by  heartfelt  thankfuhiess  for  the  bounty  which  supplies  the  use* 
and  for  the  heavenly  grace  which  restrains  from  the  abuse  of  the 
divine  mercies.  But  where  the  love  of  the  world  in  its  sensual 
gratifications  prevails  or  predominates,  and  in  proportion  to  the 
degree,  there  the  sense  of  God  as  supreme,  of  dependance  upon 
him,  and  of  thankfulness  to  him  for  his  good  creatures,  is  either 
not  in  all  the  thoughts,  or  the  mere  transient  scintillation  of  better 
principle,  dying  away  under  the  sutfocating  influence  of  those 
fleshly  lusts  which  loar  against  the  soul.  And  even  where  doubt 
may  be  entertained  as  to  the  governing  principle  of  the  conduct, 
where  fears  may  exist  that  the  love  of  woildly  pleasure  is  stronger 
in  the  heart  than  the  love  of  God,  let  the  Christian,  let  the 
person  who  would  be  a  Christian,  keep  in  mind,  that  self-denial 
is  the  strait  and  narrow  way  which  leadeth  unto  life,  and  that 
by  thus  taking  up  the.  cross  he  becomes  that  disciple  of  Christ, 
for  whom  there  is  treasure  laid  up  in  heaven. 

Secondly,  the  gratifications  of  vanity. 

Under  this  denomination  a  class  of  vices  is  included  equally 
destructive  of  and  inconsistent  with  the  religious  principle  in  the 
heart,  and  as  clearly  denoting  its  alienation  from  God,  as  the 
grosser  sins  of  sensual  indulgence.  Of  this,  however,  ir  appears 
hard  to  convince  men,  notwithstanding  the  testimony  of  Sciip- 
ture  and  reason  to  the  fact,  and  of  observation  and  experience 
to  the  effect.  Hence  it  is  the  more  necessary  to  point  out  their 
danger  in  this  respect  to  professors  of  religion,  a  danger  greatly 
increased  by  the  growing  disregard  of  those  wise  and  reasonable 
distinctions  in  external  deportment,  which  mark  the  separation 
of  the  Christian  from  the  world  during  the  rest  of  the  week  as 
well  as  on  the  Lord's  day. 

The  vicious  and  sinful  indulgencies  which  come  under  this 
head,  are  such  as  are  connected  with  and  derived  from  what 
St.  John  denominates  the  pride  of  life.  And  as  this  is  to  be  under- 
stood of  the  ostentatious  display  of  worldly  power  and  riches, 
it  will  include  all  those  extravagancies  over  which  the  fashion  of 
the  world  bears  rule,  with  a  domination  more  extensive  and  with 
an  observance  more  unreserved,  than  the  holy  and  life-giving 


404  THE    LOVE    OF    THE    WORLD 

word  of  God  receives  from  tlie  creatures  of  his  power  and  the 
ol'jects  of  his  mercy. 

But  what,  my  dear  brethren,  has  the  Christian  to  do  with  any 
of  these  things  1  What  has  the  person  who  has  felt  and  con- 
fessed himselftobea  fallen  and  depraved  creature,  a  ruined  and 
condemned  sinner,  a  stranger  and  a  pilgrim  on  the  earth,  who 
professes  to  look  for  another  and  a  better  country,  even  an 
heavenly — what  has  such  a  one  to  do  with  the  pride  of  life  in 
any  of  its  shapes  1  Is  it  for  him  to  glory  in  his  riches  or 
personal  consequence,  and  by  an  ostentatious  display  in  his 
domestic  establishment,  to  bring  in  question  the  sinceiity  of  his 
public  profession  of  religion  1  Surely  pride  was  not  made  for 
such  a  one,  or  the  blessing  of  God  bestowed  on  his  industry  to 
be  lavished  on  any  of  its  destructive  temptations.  Alas  !  my 
brethren,  how  loudly  will  the  sufferings  of  the  afflicted  members 
of  Christ,  the  viciousness  of  the  ignorant  <and  the  idle,  and  the 
meagre  support  bestowed  upon  that  gospel  which  they  profess 
to  believe,  cry  out  against  the  offerers  of  such  idolatrous  sacri- 
fices to  the  pride  of  life,  in  the  great  day  ot  eternity  ]  And  how 
sorely  will  many  who  profess  and  call  themselves  Chi istians  then 
lament  the  unjustifiable  surrenders  thus  made  to  the  pride  and 
vanity  of  a  corrupt  heart  deluded  with  the  form  of  godliness, 
shaking  hands  with  the  world,  and  crying,  Lord,  Lord,  without 
doing  the  things  which  he  says. 

In  like  manner  what  has  the  Christian,  the  person  who  pro- 
fesses to  entertain  a  godly  sorrow  fir  the  sinfulness  of  his  nature, 
with  a  humble  hope  of  mercy  through  the  righteousness  of 
Christ — what  has  such  a  person  to  do  with  any  of  those 
extravagancies  of  dress  and  ornament  which  mark  so  clearly 
the  sinful  vanity  of  personal  decoration  ]  Do  not  Christians 
know  that  excess  of  apparel  is  expressly  forbidden  them,  not 
only  as  unseemly  for  persons  professing  godliness,  but  as  an 
abuse  of  means  to  be  otherwise  applied  1  Do  they  not  know 
that  it  is  actually  glorying  in  their  shame,  a  being  vain  of  their 
ruin  1  For  what  is  clothing  of  any  kind  but  a  defect  occasioned 
by  sin,  in  this  way  replaced  by  the  divine  mercy  1  Alas  !  for  the 
precious  time  and  bountiful  means  wasted  on  this  unworthy 


INCOMPATIBLE  WITH  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD.       405 

vanity,  for  the  self  idolatry  it  prompts,  for  the  exclusion  of  all 
serious  thought  it  produces,  and  far  the  crime  it  occasions,  in 
order  to  compass  its  iiidulgence  !  Alas  !  for  tlie  retribution  to 
be  awarded  when  the  hungry,  and  the  naked,  and  the  houseless, 
shall  claim  from  the  common  Father  of  all  their  share  of  this 
wasted  superfluity,  and  he  shall  demand  it  at  their  hands  to 
whom  his  providence  committed  it  as  a  talent  to  be  improved 
to  his  glory  ! 

Hearken,  my  d^ar  brethren,  There  was  a  certain  rich  man, 
which  was  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen  and  fared  sumptuously 
every  day  :  and  there  ivas  a  certain  beggar  named  Lazarus,  which 
was  laid  at  his  gate  full  of  sores,  and  desiring  to  be  fed  with  the 
crumbs  which  fell  from  the  rich  mart's  table.  Jlnd  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  beggar  died  and  was  carried  by  the  angels  into  Jlbraham''s 
bosom  :  the  rich  man  also  died  and  ivas  buried  ;  and  in  hell  he 
lifted  up  his  eyes,  being  in  torment,  and  seelh  Mraham  afar  off, 
and  Lazarus  in  his  bosom.  And  he  cried  and  said,  Father  Abra- 
ham, have  mercy  on  me  ;  and  send  Lazarus,  that  he  may  dip  the 
lip  of  his  finger  in  water,  and  cool  my  tongue  ;  for  I  am  tormented 
in  this  flame.  But  Abraham  said,  Son,  remember  that  thou  in  thy 
life  time  receivedst  thy  good  things,  and  likewise  Lazarus  evil 
things,  but  now  he  is  comforted  and  thou  art  tormented — and  learn 
from  this  impressive  parable  what  the  pomps  and  vanities  of  this 
world  end  in,  and  be  no  longer  faithless,  but  believing. 

And  what  can  more  deeply  condemn  the  vain  amusements 
of  the  world  than  the  incitement  they  present,  and  the  opportu- 
nity they  furnish  for  the  sinful  indulgence  of  these  vicious 
gratifications.  Without  a  theatre  for  their  display,  the  wasteful 
extravagance  of  entertainment,  and  unsciiptural  excess  of 
adornment  would  come  to  an  end.  Deprive  the  theatres,  and 
ball  rooms,  and  other  debaucheries  of  the  world  of  the  counte- 
nance of  Christian  parents  and  their  families,  they  will  soon  be 
abandoned  by  the  more  orderly  and  moral  of  the  non-professing 
part  of  the  community,  and  finally  by  all  but  the  dissolute  and 
the  profligate. 

Do  not  Christians,  then,  owe  this  much  to  the  consistency  of 
their  profession  1  Yes,  they  owe  it  to  the  safety  of  their  own 
souls — to  the  souls  of  those  for  whom  they  have    covenanted 


406  THE    LOVE    OF    THE    WORLD 

witli  God,  and  to  good  example  in  the  world.  Besides,  did 
Chiistians  but  reflect  what  causes  and  occasions  of  sin  are 
furnished  by  all  those  sources  of  dissipation,  in  the  sight  of  that 
pure  and  holy  Being  who  condemns  the  idolatry  of  the  heart, 
and  the  adultery  of  the  eye,  equally  with  the  actual  commission 
of  ihe  sin,  surely  none,  who  regard  even  the  name  of  Christian, 
could  again  be  prevailed  on  to  enter  the  temple  of  vanity — to 
sacrifice  to  the  Moloch  of  the  world's  idolatry  and  sensuality 
the  sober  joy  and  holy  hope  which  cheers  the  heart,  animates 
the  life,  and  makes  peaceful  the  death  of  the  humble  believer, 
who  by  faith  overcomes  the  world,  and  lays  hold  on  eternal  life. 

HI.  Thirdly,  and  to  conclude  :  the  considerations  which  are 
calculated  to  enforce  the  exhortation  of  my  text  upon  the  com- 
municants of  the  Church,  are,  the  quality  of  the  things  them- 
selves, their  connexion  with  our  spiritual  condition,  and,  the 
personal  undertaking  of  every  professor  of  religion. 

The  quality  of  worldly  engagements  and  worldly  delights  is, 
necessarily,  hostile  to  the  spirit  of  religion  ;  and  the  very  name 
implies  as  much.  Were  they  not  of  the  world  in  the  bad  sense  of 
these  words,  were  they  neutral  even,  in  regard  to  moral  effect — 
as  too  many  wish  to  think  them,  and  not  intrinsically  opposed 
to  the  sobriety  and  watchfulness  of  a  momentary  existence 
connected  with  eternal  retiihution,  so  much  pains  never  would 
have  been  taken  by  the  wisdom  of  God,  as  we  see  is  taken  to 
warn  mankind  at  laige,  and  Christians  in  particular,  against 
their  dangerous  effects.  This  consideration  is  of  itself  sufficient, 
my  brethren,  to  enforce  the  self-denials  to  which  communicants 
are  pledged,  and  on  which  their  salvation  so  absolutely  depends. 

When  we  add  to  this  the  connexion  of  the  things  that  are  in 
the  world  with  our  spiritual  condition,  another  consideration  of 
deep  interest  to  the  Christian,  and  well  calculated  to  fortify  the 
soul   against    their  ensnaring  effects,  is  piesented  to  our  notice. 

For,  however  valued,  however  followed,  however  dearly 
purchased,  by  the  thousands  who  give  their  souls  in  exchange, 
they  are  in  themselves  of  no  real  worth  to  the  most  pressing 
want  of  a  fallen  sinner.  They  cannot  give  to  God  a  ransom 
for  their  owners,  nor  redeem  them  from  the  power  of  the  grave. 
Before  sin  entered  into  the  world  they  found  no  place  in  it,  and 


INCOMPATIBLE  WITH  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD.       407 

when  sin  shall  be  confined  in  the  lake  of  fire  they  will  be  shut 
out  from  the  blessed  abode  of  the  righteous.  The  happiness  of 
heaven  will  have  no  connexion  with  those  perishing  gratifications 
which  sin  hath  entailed  on  our  mortal  nature. 

This  consideration,  therefore,  ought  to  fortify  the  believer 
against  the  seducing  influence  of  their  deceitful  promises. 
In  the  present  life,  they  are,  to  the  Christian,  the  trial  of  his 
faith  and  love ;  and  his  everlasting  freedom  from  all  their  disquiet- 
ing temptations  depends  on  his  overcoming  them  now.  In  the 
present  life  they  form  the  test  of  his  spiritual  condition  to  the 
believer.  As  his  desires  determine  to  the  world  or  to  God,  so 
is  he  earthly  and  sensual,  or  heavenly  minded  and  spiritual.  The 
communicant,  therefore,  who  conforms  to  the  world  in  the  pur- 
suits and  indulgences  of  its  idolatry,  or  who  mingles  with  the 
giddy  followers  of  its  time-wasting,  thought-excluding,  soul- 
ensnaring  dissipations,  does  thereby  give  most  unhappy  proof 
that  the  spirit  of  the  world  and  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  bears 
rule  in  his  heart,  and,  consequently,  that  the  love  of  the  Father 
is  not  in  him. 

Above  all,  the  personal  undertaking  of  every  professor  of 
religion  being  the  renunciation  of  the  world  in  all  those  things 
which  mark  so  clearly  its  alienation  from  God,  this  considera- 
tion should  give  force  to  all  the  others,  and  combine  them  into 
one  commanding  restraint  of  every  inordinate  and  sinful  desire 
of  the  honours  and  pleasures  of  the  world.  To  the  communi- 
cants of  the  Church,  in  particular,  this  consideration  should  be 
of  the  utmost  weight.  For  they  have  not  only  by  implication 
and  as  a  consequence  of  their  profession,  renounced  the  world, 
but  specifically  at  their  baptism,  and  again  in  their  confirmation 
have  renounced  "  the  vain  pomp  and  glory  of  the  world  with 
all  covetous  desires  of  the  same,"  as  fully  as  they  have  renounced 
"  the  devil  and  all  his  works."  This  obligation  they  solemnly 
renew  over  the  broken  body  and  shed  blood  of  their  Saviour  in 
the  sacrament  of  his  death,  the  highest  and  the  holiest  of  all 
conceivable  engagements.  And  may  God  grant  that  those  who 
are  this  day  to  give  this  solemn  pledge  of  amended  life  may 
gladly  suffer  the  word  of  exhortation,  and  so  discern  the  Lord's 
body,  as  to  put  away  from  themselves  and  their  families  whatever 


408  THE    LOVE    OF    THE    WORLD,    &C. 

can  bring  reproach  on  the  name  of  Christ — scandal  on  his 
Church — and  ruin  on  their  own  souls. 

Now,  to  God  the  Fatht-r — God  the  Son — and  God  the  Holy 
Ghost,  be  ascribed  the  glory  and  praise  due  to  the  only  living 
and  true  God,  by  all  creatures,  now  and  for  ever  more.  Amen. 


SERMON  XXXVL 


RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION. 


2  Corinthians  xiii.  5. 
"  Examine  yourselves  whether  ye  be  in  the  faith ;  prove  your  own  selves." 

Need  I  say  to  you,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  that  among 
those  subjects  of  thought  and  reflection  which  occupy  the  anxie- 
ties of  the  present  Hfe,  the  consideration  of  our  place  in  the  divine 
favour,  and  of  the  ground  on  which  it  is  entertained,  is  unspeak- 
ably the  most  important  1 — Surely  this  is  not  needed  by  any  now 
before  me.  Yet  it  is  equally  sure,  I  apprehend,  that  there  are 
many  present,  by  whom  neither  time  or  thought  is  given  to  this 
great  interest,  and  to  whom  it  must  be  profitable  to  be  reminded 
of  the  one  thing  needful  ;  and  to  be  counselled  and  exhorted, 
that  amid  the  business  and  the  pleasures  of  the  world,  time  should 
be  taken  to  consider  the  worth  of  eternity,  and  to  prove  your 
expectations  of  its  endless  and  unchangeable  sanction,  by  the 
unerring  standard  of  God's  most  holy  and  most  merciful  revela- 
tion to  his  creatures.  Was  it  so,  indeed,  that  we  could  not  err, 
and  err  fatally,  too,  in  our  religious  belief  and  practice,  no  occa- 
sion could  have  been  found  for  the  apostle  to  press  this  duty 
upon  his  converts,  nor  would  it  be  necessary  to  repeat  the  exhor- 
tation continually  to  Christian  people.  But,  as  the  danger  was 
imminent  in  the  beginning  of  Christianity,  as  experience  proves 
that  it  has  not  lessened  in  the  progress  of  the  gospel,  as  corrup- 
tions have  multiplied,  and  indifference  has  increased,  so  has  it 
become  a  more  imperious  duty  for  Christians  to  institute  this 
examination  and  proof  of  their  religious  condition,  and  according 
to  the  result  to  estimate  their  hope  for  hereafter. 

To  deceive  ourselves  on  this  subject,  is  to  be  undone  for  ever, 
my  hearers  ;  and  with  such  an  alternative  at  stake,  and  with 
such  effectual  means  to  determine  the  point,  the  equity  of  our 
own  hearts  must  decide  that  indifference,  even  to  the  event, 

Vol.  II.— 52 


410  RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION. 

deserves  to  be  thus  undone.  Let  us,  then,  consider  this  moment- 
ous subject  with  the  seriousness  and  attention  it  ouii^lit  surely 
to  command  from  every  accountable  being  ;  and  as  the  word  of 
God  shall  warrant,  be  warned  to  repent  and  amend  our  ways,  or 
encouraged  to  hope  and  persevere  unto  the  end.  To  assist  you 
herein,  1  shall  point  out  what  it  is  that  we  are  to  examine  our- 
selves concerning — how  we  are  to  make  this  examination,  and 
how  to  come  at  the  proof  or  assurance  that  we  are  in  the  faith. 

Examine  yourselves  whether  ye  be  in  the  faith ;  prove  your  own 
selves. 

I.  First,  what  it  is  that  we  are  to  examine  ourselves  concerning. 
The  words,  in  the  faith,  refer  us,  undoubtedly,  to  something 
definite  and   determined  as   the  body  of  religious  doctrine  and 
practice  delivered  to  and  received  by  all  who  profess  to  embrace 
the  gospel.     This  body  of  doctrine,  accordingly,  is  called  in 
Scripture,  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,  the  form  of  sound 
words,   received  from  the  apostles  of  Christ,  and  the  doctrine 
which  is  according  to  godliness.      The  point  to  be  examined  into, 
therefore,  is  whether  we  believe  the  doctrines  and  practise  the 
duties  of  the  Christian  religion    as  taught  and  delivered  to  the 
saints,  or  associated  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  by  his 
apostles.     The  inquiry  is  not  whether  we  are  believers,  in  the 
sense  of  acknowledging  the  truth  of  the  facts  and   doctrines  of 
revelation  ;  but  whether  the  knowledge  of  those  facts  and  doc- 
trines has  brought  us  to  Christ  for  the  promises  of  God,  made 
to  the  world  through  him.     Nothing  less  than  this  will  answer 
the  strength  and  peculiarity  of  the  expression,  in  the  faith,  which 
can   have  no  other  safe  or   reasonable  meaning   than   this — of 
being  truly  and  vitally  united  to  the  faith,  in  a  thankful  reception 
of  the  gospel,  and  of  living,  or  walking  by  faith,  in  conformity 
with  the  example  and  commands  of  the  author  and  finisher  of 
our  faith. 

This  is  certified  to  us  both  by  the  reason  of  the  thing  and  by 
the  use  frequently  made  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  word  in,  to 
denote  condition  or  influence.  Thus,  when  St.  Paul  expresses 
his  wish  to  be  found  in  Christ,  the  meaning  is,  that  he  may  be 
a  partaker  of  the  salvation  procured  by  his  undertaking  for 
sinners ;  and  when  St.  John  tells  us  that  he  was  in  the  spirit  at 


RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION.  411 

a  particular  time,  the  meaning  is,  that  he  was  then  under  the 
special  influence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  like  manner  of  the 
word  as  used  in  my  text. 

Much  of  the  true  meaning  and  importance  of  the  text,  and 
consequently  of  the  duty  therein  exhorted  to,  depends,  also,  upon 
the  word  llie,  as  connected  with  the  word  faltk.  'Jhefaitk  does 
not  mean  a  faith,  or  sonne  faith,  or  a  part  of  t  •  faith,  but  is 
definite  and  precise,  and  directs  aiid  'imits  the  in.|uiry  to  a  known 
and  specilied  subject.  In  confirmation  of  this,  religion  is  never 
spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures  as  multiform,  that  is,  consistent  with 
variety  or  variation  of  belief  and  obedience,  but  as  a  harmonious 
and  agreeing  system  of  faith  and  holiness,  devised  by  the  divine 
wisdom  for  the  benefit  of  fallen  sinners,  and  as  such,  unchange- 
able. There  is  one  faith,  says  the  inspired  word  ;  just  as  there 
is  one  body,  or  Church,  to  which  this  one  faith  is  delivered,  and 
in  which  it  must  be  professed  ;  one  Lord,  or  head  of  that  body, 
and  one  Spirit  given  to  abide  with  the  body  for  the  union  and 
life  of  all  its  true  members.  This  is  the  faith  which  we  are  to 
examine  ourselves  whether  we  are  in  ;  that  is,  whether  we  truly 
believe,  profes'*,  and  practise  the  religion  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  taught  by  his  apostles,  recorded  in  the  Scriptures  of 
our  faith,  and  received  and  followed  by  the  primitive  Church. 
This  is  the  duty  to  which  we  are  exhorted  in  the  text,  and  we 
are  therefore  exhorted  to  it  because  by  this  means  only  can 
we  determine,  satisfactorily,  what  our  religious  condition  really 
is,  and  what  our  dependance  for  hereafter  is  actually  worth. 

Let  us,  then,  inquire, 

II.  Secondly,  how  we  are  to  make  this  examination. 

Religion,  or  being  in  the  faith,  is  not  our  birthright,  my  hearers. 
No  man  is  born  a  believer.  Yet,  where  the  gospel  has  shed  its 
happy  light,  all  are  brought  into  being  with  the  means  of  becom- 
ing Chris:ians — and  hence  the  peculiar  expression  of  being  6orn 
again,  used  to  denote  the  spiritual  change  which  must  be  wrought 
in  every  practical  sinner  who  would  be  and  who  is  a  Christian 
indeed.  Religion,  then,  being  a  personal  attainment,  is  to  be 
examined  into,  and  tried  and  determined  by  its  proper  evidences, 
in  the  same  manner  as  any  other  attainable  personal  qualifica- 
tion.    If  we  possess  it  we  must  surely  be  able  to  show  by  what 


412 


RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION. 


means  we  obtained  it;  and  by  bringing  our  religious  condition, 
and  the  means  made  use  of  in  its  attainment,  to  the  standard  given 
in  the  Scriptures,  we  can  be  certified  and  assured  as  to  the 
highest  and  most  anxious  concern  which  can  engage  our  atten- 
tion. To  the  Scriptures,  then,  let  us  bring  this  examination, 
and  let  each  determine  his  own  case  by  its  agreement  or  disagree- 
ment therewith. 

The  persons  spoken  of  in  Scripture  as  being  in  the  faith,  are 
described  as  having  been  brought  by  the  preaching  of  the  word 
to  a  just  sense  of  their  lost  and  undone  condition,  as  sinners 
both  by  nature  and  practice — as  having  truly  repented  of  and 
forsaken  their  former  sinful  courses — as  having  thanivfully 
embraced  the  mercy  offered  them,  through  the  atonement  of  the 
cross — as  being  baptized  in  acknowledgment  of  their  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  their  dedicating  themselves  to  his 
service — and,  as  living  answerable  to  his  laws  and  example  in 
all  holiness  and  righteousness  of  life  and  conversation — Continu- 
ing steadfast  in  the  apostles  doctrine  and  fellowship,  and  in  breaking 
of  bread  and  in  prayers  ;  as  it  is  briefly  expressed  of  the  first 
Christians  in  the  Scriptures,  to  denote  their  union  and  constancy 
in  the  faith. 

Now,  as  there  is  but  one  faith,  and  one  strait  and  narrow 
way  to  enter  into  life,  all  that  they  were  then,  must  be  found  in 
us  now,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  if  we  would  entertain  a  good 
hope  of  the  same  reward  which  animated  them,  to  which  they 
waded  through  flames  and  blood,  and  to  which  we  are  more  mer- 
cifidiy  called  without  a  privation  or  a  suffering  to  encounter. 
Oh  !  how  should  it  deepen  our  thankfulness  that  Christ's  yoke 
is  indeed  made  easy  and  his  burden  light  to  us,  compared  with 
what  it  was  to  them  ;  and  how  should  we  fear  to  separate  from 
this  holy  fellowship,  and  strive  to  improve  our  distinguishing 
mercies,  and  walk  worthy  of  his  goodness  icho  hath  caused  the 
lines  to  fall  unto  us  in  pleasant  places  and  hath  given  us  a  goodly 
heritage. 

To  be  in  the  faith,  then,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Scrip- 
ture, it  is  requisite  that  believers  in  the  truth  of  revelation  should 
be  regenerated  in  baptism  and  spiritually  renewed  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  ;  that  they  should  cease  from  sin,  earnestly  repenting  of 


RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION.  413 

it,  as  the  cause  of  God's  wrath  and  the  ruin  of  their  souls,  and 
be  converted  from  the  iove  and  |)ractice  of  its  wickedness  ;  that 
they  should  openly  einbrace  the  gospel  as  the  truth  of  God  for 
their  salvation  ;  that  they  should  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  their  only  Saviour 
and  their  Judge — that  they  should  confess  him  before  men  as 
the  Lord  their  righteousness,  walking  in  all  the  command- 
ments and  ordinances  of  his  holy  laws,  in  the  sf)iiit  of  love 
towards  each  other,  and  of  peace  and  good  will  towards  all 
mankind.  This  is  the  standard  to  which  to  bring  this  all-import- 
ant examination  of  ourselves;  for  only  as  our  lives  are  in  agree- 
ment with  what  the  Scriptures  plainly  teach,  can  there  be  any 
rational  hope  of  the  mercy  therein  revealed  and  of  the  blessings 
therein  promised. 

III.  Thirdly,  I  am  to  point  out  to  you  how  to  come  at  the 
proof  or  assurance  that  we  are  in  the  faith. 

Prove  your  oicn  selves,  says  the  apostle. 

As  religion  is  not  an  abstract  speculation  of  the  mind,  but  a 
living,  active  principle  of  faith  and  holiness — the  proof  that  it 
presides  over  and  rules  the  life,  must  always  be  derived  from  its 
visible  effects.  As  the  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit,  so  is  the  Chris- 
tian known  by  his  conversation  in  the  world.  This  is  a  divine 
maxim,  and  consequently  a  safe  one;  yet  it  requires  to  be  guard- 
ed against  in  the  abuse  which  may  be  and  is  made  of  it,  to  the 
entire  unsettling  of  those  distinctive  marks  which  the  Scriptures 
instruct  us  to  build  our  assurance  upon.  Because  the  proof  of 
our  spiritual  state  being  derived  from  the  two-fold  testimony  of 
external  condition  and  internal  consciousness,  it  is  from  the 
agreement  of  both  these,  and  not  of  either  singly,  with  the  word 
of  God,  that  Scriptural  assurance  is  to  be  entertained.  In  the 
nature  of  things,  external  condition  must  be  the  ground  of,  or 
rather,  must  precede  internal  consciousness  ;  that,  is,  we  must 
first  be  conformed  to  what  the  gospel  requires  of  outward  observ- 
ance, before  we  can  be  rightly  entitled  to  the  comfort  and 
assurance  which  the  gospel  promises  to  believers.  This  is  so 
very  plain  und  undeniable,  that  it  is  wonderful  and  greatly  to  be 
lamented  it  should  be  overlooked  or  disregarded  by  numbers 


414  RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION. 

who,  I  doubt  not,  are  truly  desirous  to  honour  God  in  their 
lives. 

Aj^ain  :  As  every  effect  flows  from  its  particular  cause,  as  well 
in  spiritual  as  in  natural  things,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Christian  to 
be  as  careful  of  the  commanded  means  as  he  is  soHcitous  of  the 
promised  end  ;  all  the  external  appointments  of  religion,  there- 
fore, (the  Church,  the  ministry,  the  vi^ord,  and  the  sacraments,) 
being  from  God,  are,  as  such,  to  be  reverenced  and  observed  by 
us.  And  as  they  are  his  means  to  the  production  of  an  end  in 
us  and  for  our  benefit,  we  can  have  no  Scriptural  ground  to 
expect  the  end  separate  from  the  means.  It  is  not  sufficient, 
then,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  to  look  to  the  conversation  alone 
in  order  to  prove  our  spiritual  state.  Our  title  to  those  promises 
of  divine  assistance  on  which  all  spiritual  attainment  by  us  does 
wholly  depend,  must  first  be  proved  by  its  agreement  with  the 
requirements  of  Scripture,  and  the  conversation  or  life  also 
agreeing  therewith,  and  not  otherwise.  We  may,  then,  joyfully 
and  securely  take  to  ourselves  all  the  comfort  which  the  witness 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  with  our  spirits,  that  we  are  the  children 
of  God,  can  give. 

Once  more  :  From  the  nature  of  religion  as  a  moral  attainment 
and  a  reasonable  service,  the  satisfaction  and  enjoyment  we  are 
entitled  to  look  for  under  its  influence  must  always  be  subse- 
quent to  its  duties — must  flow  from  them,  and  be  proportioned 
to  the  faithfulness  with  whi<'.h  they  are  performed.  Christian 
joy  and  rejoicing,  therefore,  is  not  the  impulse  of  mer€  feeling 
stirred  into  occasional  excitement,  but  it  is  the  rational  approval 
of  the  heart,  filled  with  hope  from  the  consciousness  of  duty 
performed  through  love  to  God.  This  was  St.  Paul's  ground  of 
rejoicing;  and  no  Christian,  I  should  think,  need  want  a  better 
or  a  different  one — Our  rejoicing  is  this,  the  testimony  of  our 
conscicnre,  says  he,  that  in  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity  we  have 
had  our  conversation  in  the  world.  And  St.  John  tea<;hes,  that 
if  our  heart  condemn  us  not,  then  have  ice  confidence  towards  God. 
And  in  like  manner  of  assurance  that  we  are  in  the  faith,  that 
is,  are  true  believers  and  sincere  Christians.  This  must  always 
be  derived  from  its  proper  proofs — carefully  guarding  against 


RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION.  415 

any  assumption  of  condition  which  has  not  the  joint  warrant  of 
the  word  of  God  and  of  our  own  conscience,  as  the  instrument 
by  which  tlie  Holy  Spirit  apphes  that  word  to  our  edification 
and  comfort. 

Having  thus  explained  the  text,  and  in  such  wise,  I  trust,  that 
all  present  are  competent  to  apply  it  to  their  own  personal  con- 
dition as  probationers  for  eternity,  I  proceed  now  to  enforce 
this  duty  by  the  considerations  proper  to  its  supreme  importance. 

It  is  very  reasonable  to  suppose,  I  think,  that  the  same  Scrip- 
tures which  have  proposed  to  us  religion  as  our  duty,  and 
happiness  as  its  end  and  reward,  have  also  taught  us  how  to 
judge  and  determine,  satisfactorily,  when  we  are  in  the  way  that 
leads  to  the  truth  of  the  one  and  the  certainty  of  the  other. 

If  this  is  so,  must  it  not  be  the  most  wilful  rejection  of  light 
and  knowledge,  to  rest  our  religious  condition,  and  by  certain 
consequence,  our  eternal  state,  on  a  foundation  which  we  have 
not  examined  by  the  standard  of  God's  holy  word  1  And  yet 
this  is  the  case  with  all  who  are  careless  and  unconcerned  on 
the  subject  of  religion.  For  it  is  not  that  such  persons  do  reject 
God  and  his  word — the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  bis  salvation. 
No — and  I  appeal  to  their  hearts  at  this  moment  that  they  do 
not.  But  they  permit  the  God  of  this  world  to  delude  them  with 
hopes  of  mercy  through  Christ,  or  with  intentions  of  future 
repentance,  and  are  gradually  becoming  hardened  through  the 
deceitfulness  of  sin.  Now,  what  is  there  in  the  reach  of  man  to 
withstand  this  delusion  but  serious  examination  1  And  surely  if 
any  thing  can  prompt  them  to  engage  in  it,  it  must  be  the  consi- 
deration, that  only  as  we  are  united  to  Christ  by  a  living  faith, 
and  continue  therein,  is  there  hope  towards  God  for  a  fallen 
sinner. 

Again  :  As  we  are  intelligent  beings  and  free  agents,  God  is 
declared  in  Scripture  to  deal  with  us  as  such — religion,  then,  is 
concerned  with  our  reason  and  our  wills,  with  our  hopes  and 
our  tears.  Hence,  the  doctrines  revealed  in  the  gospel,  the 
system  of  its  duties,  the  inducements  to  practice  them,  and  the 
sanctions  of  its  commands,  are  all  addressed  to  those  faculties 
and  affections. 

But  if  we  permit  our  reason  to  be  blinded  by  conclusions, 


4IB  RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION. 

unsupported  by  the  word  of  God,  and  our  affections  to  be  exclu- 
sively engaged  with  the  world  and  its  occupations,  all  religious 
attainment  is  forcibly  excluded,  and  the  very  faculties  which 
God  hath  given  for  the  noblest  purposes  are  squandered  upon 
pursuits  which  have  no  permanency — which  cannot  satisfy  the 
soul  or  give  relief  in  the  day  of  trouble  and  anguish — which 
cannot  quiet  the  conscience,  make  our  peace  with  God,  or  still 
the  fears  and  allay  the  terrors  of  a  dying  bed.  Yet  the  consi- 
deration that  this  awaits  us  all,  might  strip  the  mask  from  these 
vanities  and  restore  an  immortal  being  to  the  true  purpose  of  his 
creation  and  redemption — to  his  true  happiness — to  his  God. 
And  what  more  likely  to  effect  this  than  the  serious  examination 
of  the  conditions  on  which  God  hath  suspended  the  rewards  and 
the  punishments  of  eternity  1 

Once  more  :  Every  man,  in  proportion  to  his  understanding, 
perceives  that  he  is  bound  by  his  very  nature  to  acknowledge 
and  obey  the  laws  of  God  ;  and  if  a  blessing  is  promised  to  such 
obedience,  the  same  understanding  which  enables  him  to  appre- 
hend the  condition  and  the  promise,  shows  him,  also,  on  an 
examination  of  his  conduct,  what  expectation  he  has  of  attain- 
ing the  promised  blessing.  No  man,  therefore,  under  the  light 
of  the  gospel,  can  plead  any  other  than  a  wilful  and,  as  such,  an 
inexcusable  ignorance.  The  dignity  of  the  author  of  our  salva- 
tion— the  unspeakable  worth  of  eternity,  and  the  reason  of  your 
own  minds,  my  dear  hearers,  all  unite  in  pressing  upon  your 
hearts  the  exhortation  of  my  text. 

Let  not,  then,  that  evil  spirit  which  has  gone  forth  into  the 
world,  and  instilled  the  ruinous  delusion  into  the  hearts  of  men, 
that  the  precious  benefits  of  the  death  of  Christ  may  be  obtain- 
ed without  conforming  to  the  requirements  of  the  gospel,  make 
vain  this  exhortation  to  you.  But  take  your  Bibles  and  your 
lives  into  solemn  retirement,  and  there  examine  what  your  hope 
now  is,  whereon  it  is  founded,  and  what  it  will  be  in  the  day  of 
death  and  judgment  if  you  continue  as  you  are — unconverted — 
impenitent — unholy.  Examine  yourselves,  then,  lohether  ye  be 
in  the  failh.  Seize  the  precious  moments  of  God's  sparing  mercy 
to  repent  and  turn  fiom  the  error  of  your  ways.  Come  to  that 
merciful  Saviour  who  stands  ready  to  receive  the  true  penitent ; 


RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION.  417 

and,  in  newness  of  life,  wait  upon  God  in  humble  prayer,  for  the 
•blessing  of  his  love  shed  abroad  in  your  heart  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  for  the  hope  that  maketh  not  ashamed,  because  full 
of  immortality. 

Upon  you,  my  Christian  brethren,  I  must  also  press  the 
exhortation  of  my  text.  You  are  in  the  faith,  indeed,  by  an  open 
profession  of  religion,  and  have  not,  I  trust,  to  lay  again  the 
foundation  of  repentance  from  dead  ivorks  and  of  faith  towards  God. 
But  for  you  it  is  safe,  while  to  me  it  is  not  grievous,  to  remind 
you  that  the  more  diligent  and  faithful  you  are  in  examining 
yourselves,  the  more  will  your  light  shine  and  your  religious 
comforts  increase.  The  world  is  an  encroaching  thing,  my 
dear  brethren,  and  demands  continual  watchfulness  to  with- 
stand the  blandishment  of  its  temptations.  Our  own  hearts  are 
treacherous,  and  we  have  great  cause  to  fear  lest  we  decline  into 
the  cold  formality  of  heartless  habit,  the  living  death  of  religion 
without  power,  without  the  felt  influence  of  the  love  of  Christ 
constraining  us  to  give  him  all  our  praise,  all  our  duty — as  our 
God  and  Saviour.  To  avoid  this  too  ready  and  too  common 
evil,  frequent  and  faithful  self-examination  whether  our  lives  are 
answerable  to  our  holy  profession,  and  that  to  the  revealed 
directions  of  the  word  of  God,  is  the  best  safe-guard.  It  compels 
the  Christian  to  keep  a  record,  as  it  were,  of  his  very  thoughts, 
and  thus  enables  him  to  bring  to  the  mercy  seat  for  pardon 
and  grace,  his  failures  in  duty,  his  sinful  inclinations,  his  evil 
tempers — his  weaknesses  of  every  kind — before  they  strengthen 
into  habit. 

To  retire  frequently  with  God  to  commune  with  our  own 
heart,  begets  a  holy  watchfulness  against  sin,  a  lively  desire  for 
growth  in  grace,  and  increases  strength  by  the  frequency  and 
fervency  of  prayer  ;  for  God  hath  so  appointed,  that  to  him 
that  hath  shall  he  given.  More  especially  in  the  near  approach 
of  the  solemn  celebration  of  our  Saviour's  Passion  is  it  both 
requisite  and  profitable  that  we  enter  faithfully  upon  this  exami- 
nation of  ourselves  ;  that  we  may  present  to  God,  through  his 
merits,  a  sincere  offering,  and,  with  hearts  truly  penitent  for  all 
our  failures  towards  him,  and  truly  desirous  of  the  succour  and 
help  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  may  be  replenished  with  the  comfort 

Vol.  11.— 53 


418  RELIGIOUS    EXAMINATION. 

of  his  forgiveness,  and  enriched  with  the  treasure  of  his  heavenly 
grace,  to  love  him  more  and  to  serve  him  better  for  the  time  to 
come. 

It  is  a  feast  of  love,  my  brethren.  Let  us,  therefore,  examine 
and  prove  our  own  selves,  that  love  may  abound  towards  God 
and  towards  each  other,  and  blessing  from  on  high  be  poured 
out  upon  us  and  upon  all  the  Israel  of  God.  Now,  to  God  the 
Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  glorj^ 
now  and  for  ever. 


SERMON    XXXVII. 

NON-CONFORMITY   WITH    THE    WORLD. 

Romans  xii.  2,  first  clause. 
"  And  be  not  conformed  to  this  world." 

It  appears  to  have  been  St.  Paul's  method,  in  writing  to  the 
Churches,  to  lay  down,  in  the  first  place,  the  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  from  them  to  draw  those  obligations  to  practical  duty 
which  all  who  profess  to  believe  the  gospel  are  bound  to  observe 
and  to  carry  out  into  their  daily  conversation  in  the  world. 
Upon  this  principle  all  his  epistles — particularly  that  to  the 
Romans — are  constructed.  And  hereby  we  are  taught,  my  breth- 
ren, to  consider  carefully  the  close  connexion  between  the 
doctrines  and  the  duties  of  our  religion — to  perceive  the  reason- 
ableness of  that  service  which  God  requires  at  our  hands,  and 
to  understand  that  the  knowledge  of  divine  things  communicated 
to  us  and  the  divine  grace  conferred  upon  us  by  the  gospel, 
are  no  otherwise  profitable  than  as  they  are  rightly  applied  and 
improved. 

Though  the  command  of  God  is  abundantly  sufficient  to  make 
every  rational  being  feel  the  obligation  and  render  the  duty  of 
obedience,  yet  it  is  not  to  authority  alone  that  obedience  is  to 
be  referred.  In  things  moral  and  spiritual  the  connexion  of  the 
required  duty  with  something  previously  done  and  communicated 
on  the  part  of  the  Almighty  God,  and  also  with  consequences 
subsequently  to  affect  ourselves,  enters  very  deeply  into  the 
grounds  of  Christian  obligation,  and  enhances,  even  infinitely, 
the  indispensable  duty  of  Christian  obedience.  Hence,  I  think, 
may  be  shown  the  great  error  of  referring  the  substance  of 
religion  either  to  the  exuberance  of  internal  feeling,  or  to  the 
meagreness  of  external  morality.  Hence,  also.  Christians  might 
be  instructed  how  very  important  it  is,  that  serious  consideration 
of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity — of  the  intimate  connexion  of 


420  NON-CONFORMITY    WITH    THE    WORLD. 

revealed  religion  with  the  actual  condition  of  fallen  creatures, 
should  form  the  basis  on  which  the  gospel  is  embraced  and  follow- 
ed, as  the  light  of  life — as  the  only  ground  of  hope  and  exertion 
to  sinners.  By  no  other  means  now  given  us,  it  appears  to  me, 
can  that  union  of  the  understanding  and  affections  be  produced 
which  constitutes  a  reasonable  service,  worthy  to  be  presented 
to  the  great  Moral  Governor  of  the  universe. 

Upon  this  principle,  I  tliink,  it  is  evident  that  St.  Paul  con- 
structed the  epistle  from  which  my  text  is  taken.  He  laid  before 
the  church  in  Rome  the  grounds  on  which  their  duty  as  redeem- 
ed creatures  rested ;  he  then  pointed  out  the  obligations  they 
had  come  under  as  professed  believers.  He  informed  their 
understandings  before  he  appealed  to  their  hearts.  And  it  was 
not  until  he  had  showed  them  the  breadth  and  the  length,  and  the 
height  and  the  depth,  of  God's  rich  redeeming  love,  that  he 
besought  them,  by  the  mercies  o/God,  to  present  their  bodies  a  living 
sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  to  God,  and  not  to  be  conformed  to  this 
world,  as  the  reasonable  service  as  well  as  commanded  duty  of 
Christian  believers. 

On  this  ground,  therefore,  my  brethren,  do  I  wish  you  to 
meet  the  exhortation  of  my  text,  as  that  on  which  alone  you 
can  either  realize  its  importance,  feel  its  obligation,  or  fulfil  its 
requirements.  And  it  is  a  most  affecting  circumstance,  and 
beyond  all  others  touching  to  the  feelings,  that  in  the  boundary 
of  this  world,  the  being  is  not  found  who  can  stand  excused  from 
the  duty  because  he  is  not  included  in  the  consideration  upon 
which  it  is  required.  All,  without  exception,  are  partakers  of 
the  mercies  of  God  ;  and  those  mercies,  would  men  but  hear 
their  voice,  point  them  to  God — to  learn  his  will,  to  give  them- 
selves without  reserve  to  his  holy  service,  and  to  hope  for  his 
everlasting  favour.  To  Christians,  in  particular,  the  mercies  of 
God  speak  a  language  addressed  directly  to  the  heart,  in  the  gift 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  source  of  all  present  and  the  pledge  of  all 
future  blessings.  To  them,  an  appeal  in  the  name  of  him  who 
hath  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  can 
surely  never  be  in  vain.  To  them  an  exhortation  to  promote 
his  honour  and  advance  his  kingdom  in  the  world,  grounded  o 
the  mighty  benefits  conferred  on  them  by  him  icho  hath  reconciled 


NON-CONFORMITY   WITH    THE   WORLD.  421 

US  to  God  by  his  death,  must  come  with  the  most  winning  power. 
If  the  heart  can  feel,  it  must  be  touched — if  the  judgment  can 
understand,  it  must  approve  ;  and  both  uniting,  must  constrain 
every  sincere  believer,  every  true  disciple  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
to  give  himself  without  reserve  to  this  primary  duty  of  separa- 
tion from  the  world,  as  the  distinguishing  mark  of  that  peculiar 
people,  whom  his  master  came  to  purify  unto  himself,  that  he 
might  present  them  without  spot  to  God,  as  inheritors  of  eter- 
nal glory. 

As  partakers,  then,  of  the  manifold  grace  of  God,  I  beseech 
you,  my  brethren,  to  take  this  distinctive  and  all-important 
religious  duty  to  your  most  serious  consideration  ;  and  that  you 
may  be  enabled  to  do  so  with  advantage,  I  will  now  endeavour 
to  explain  to  you, 

First,  what  we  are  to  understand  by  the  words  this  icorld, 
made  use  of  in  the  text. 

Secondly,  what  constitutes  conformity  to,  or  with,  this 
world ;  and,  then. 

Conclude  with  an  enforcement  of  the  dut}^  from  the  obliga- 
tions we  have  come  under  as  professing  Christians. 

And  be  not  conformed  to  this  world. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  explain  what  we  are  to  understand  by  the 
words  this  world,  made  use  of  in  the  text. 

In  the  language  of  Scripture,  the  phrase  this  world  is  used  in 
two  significations — the  one  denoting  the  material  world,  or 
frame  of  created  things,  the  other  denoting  the  moral  world, 
or  the  condition  of  mankind  as  respects  virtue  or  vice.  In  the 
present  instance,  therefore,  the  words  this  world  will  signify  the 
corrupt  principles,  maxims,  fashions,  customs,  and  manners  of 
the  world.  With  these  the  Christian  is  exhorted  to  have  no 
conformity,  fellowship,  or  agreement. 

Whatever  of  difficulty,  then,  attends  this  subject  as  a  practical 
question,  there  can  be  none  either  as  to  the  meaning  of  the 
phrase,  or  as  to  the  obligation  of  the  duty  enforced.  Yet  both 
observation  and  experience  teach  us,  my  brethren,  that  there  is 
great  and,  I  fear,  increasing  difficulty  in  meeting  the  requirement 
of  my  text  as  it  ought  to  be  met  by  those  who  profess  and  call 
themselves  Christians.     But  as  mere  difficulty  forms  no  excuse 


422  NON-eoNFORMITY   WITH    THE    WORLD. 

to  the  Christian  for  the  neglect  of  his  duty,  it  behoves  us  all 
rather  to  consider  with  care  wherein  the  difficulty  really  con- 
sists, that  we  may  set  ourselves  to  overcome  it  with  the  greater 
diligence. 

Now  this  is  found  partly  in  ourselves,  and  partly  in  the  exist- 
ing state  of  the  Christian.  From  the  corruption  of  our  nature 
we  are  continually  disposed  to  lower  the  obligations  of  religion, 
and  to  become  remiss  in  that  watchfulness,  self-denial,  and 
faithfulness  which  alone  can  ensure  success  in  working  out  our 
everlasting  salvation.  Hence,  as  we  decline  from  commanded 
duty,  we  decline  also  from  religious  attainment,  for  it  is  to  him 
that  hath  that  more  is  given ;  and  thus  Christians  settle  down 
into  a  lukewarm  state  of  religion,  and  content  themselves  with 
the  poor  and  low  qualification  that  they  are  free  from  the  out- 
breaking wickedness  of  the  dissolute  and  the  profligate.  But 
as  this  is  only  the  negative  side  of  religion,  as  it  is  no  more  than 
what  the  morality  of  the  world  can  compass — what  unbelievers 
frequently  manifest — its  inevitable  tendency  is  to  assimilate 
Christians  with  the  world,  not  to  separate  them  from  it ;  to 
obscure  and  eventually  to  obliterate  that  line  of  distinction  which 
separates  Christ  from  Belial,  and  to  deaden  exertion  for  the 
attainment  of  those  heavenly  tempers  and  holy  dispositions 
which  are  indispensable  to  the  enjoyment  of  God  in  glory. 

In  the  existing  state  of  the  Christian  world,  also,  is  this 
difficulty  not  only  found,  but  increased.  Corrupt  departure 
from  the  spirit  of  religion,  in  the  neglect  of  primary  and  funda- 
mental duties,  never  stops  short  of  the  entire  destruction  of  the 
religious  principle.  From  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away 
even  that  xohich  he  seemelh  to  have.  And  though  the  unclean 
spirit  may  have  been  cast  out,  yet,  if  at  any  time  his  former 
residence  become  empty — if  the  light  of  Christian  profession 
be  not  kept  burning  with  the  oil  of  prayer  and  watchfulness,  he 
returns  with  a  reinforcement  of  other  yet  more  wicked  spirits, 
and  the  last  state  of  that  man  is  ivorse  than  the  first. 

Non-conformity  with  the  world  requii'ing  a  line  to  be  drawn , 
on  one  side  of  which  the  Christian  is  bound  to  keep,  as  the 
world  assimilates  to  the  gospel  through  the  civilizing  influence 
of  Christian  truth,  or  as  the  gospel  is  assimilated  to  the  world 


NON-CONFORMITY    WITH    THE    WORLD.  423 

through  the  loose  conversation  of  those  who  profess  to  beheve 
it,  in  either  case,  the  line  is  trodden  out,  and  the  difficulty  to 
draw  it  afresh  is  increased.  The  power  of  habit,  the  influence 
of  example,  the  sanction  of  numbers  supporting  each  other, 
have  a  direct  tendency  to  lower  the  standard  of  religious  duty, 
to  corrupt  the  purity  of  religion,  and  to  tempt  Christians  to 
mingle  in  those  unhallowed  scenes  where  the  votaries  of  the 
world  delight  to  revel,  and  where  vice  is  rendered  more  seduc- 
tive and  dangerous  by  being  stripped  of  its  grossness. 

When  the  apostle  penned  the  words  of  my  text,  the  Chris- 
tian convert  had  but  to  look  around  him,  and,  in  the  revolting 
obscenity  of  Heathen  manners^  to  mark  out  distinctly  that  world 
to  which  he  was  not  to  be  conformed.  But  in  the  present  day, 
when  Christianity  has  become  national,  and  divisions  in  religion 
have  set  up  opposite  standards  of  faith  and  morals — when  all 
claim  the  Christian  name,  and  the  form  of  godliness  has  eat  out 
the  power  thereof — a  harder  task  awaits  the  person  who  would 
indeed  fulfil  the  duty  enjoined  by  my  text,  and  draw  the  line 
betwixt  himself  and  the  world. 

Yet,  my  dear  brethren,  it  must  be  drawn,  and  it  must  be 
observed.  If  we  would  enjoy  the  peace  of  God  upon  earth,  or 
the  presence  of  God  in  heaven,  we  must  make  our  calling  and 
election  sure,  by  a  clear  and  distinct  separation  from  the  world 
— from  its  evil  ways,  and  unprofitable  pursuits.  And  as  this  is 
our  indispensable  duty,  so,  by  the  goodness  of  God,  every  Chris- 
tian is  furnished  with  such  plain  directions,  and  with  such 
effectual  help,  as,  if  faithfully  followed,  will  insure  success.  As 
we  have  the  same  world  to  contend  with,  so  have  we  the  same 
grace  and  truth  to  strengthen  and  direct  us  which  the  early 
Christians  had.  And  though  the  world  has  changed  the  type 
of  its  viciousness,  through  the  knowledge  of  Christian  doctrine, 
it  is  still  the  world,  and,  as  such,  is  to  be  watched  against,  and 
the  snare  of  its  temptations  avoided. 

In  order,  then,  to  surmount  this  difficulty,  and  enable  you, 
my  brethren,  to  draw  the  line  between  the  world  and  religion, 
let  us  inquire, 

II.  Secondly,  what  constitutes  conformity  to,  or  with,  this 
world. 


424  NON-CONFORMITY    WITH    THE    WORLD. 

In  order  to  answer  this  question  aright,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  in  what  sense  the  words  are  here  used  by  the  apostle. 
And  as  he  has  been  shown  to  apply  them  exclusively  to  the 
corrupt,  sinful,  and  irreligious  part  of  mankind,  we  are  furnished 
with  a  safe  rule  to  direct  our  judgment. 

Conformity  with  this  world,  therefore,  consists  in  agreement 
and  participation  with  it,  in  those  pursuits  and  practices  which 
are  either  directly  or  indirectly  opposed  to  the  purity  and  holi- 
ness of  the  gospel,  and  to  the  interests  of  our  own  souls,  or  the 
souls  of  others. 

If  this  definition  be  correct,  which  I  conceive  it  to  be,  it  will 
follow  that  in  those  things  which  are  expressly  commanded  or 
forbidden  by  the  law  of  God,  the  neglect  or  violation  of  which 
constitutes  actual  sin,  Christians,  as  such,  cannot  be  conformed 
to  this  world ;  because  the  habit  of  wilful  violation  of  the  law 
of  God  vacates  the  Christian  character,  and  transfers  all  who 
are  thus  guilty  to  the  side  of  the  world.  They  are  not  of  God  ; 
and  the  exhortation  to  such,  must  be  different  from  that  in  the 
text,  it  must  be  to  repent  and  turn  to  God. 

It  also  follows,  that  the  crime  of  conformity  to  this  world 
cannot  be  charged  against  Christians,  because  they  are  found 
pursuing  the  same  callings,  occupations,  and  professions  which 
are  also  followed  by  the  people  of  the  world.  A  Christian 
magistrate,  a  Christian  lawyer,  a  Christian  merchant,  farmer,, 
tradesman,  or  mechanic,  is  not,  therefore,  conformed  to  the 
world,  because  the  great  majority  which  follow  those  callings 
are  irreligious  men  ;  the  callings  themselves  are  lawful  and 
necessary  to  maintain  the  state  of  the  world  ;  and  well  were  it 
for  the  world,  and  for  its  business,  were  they  more  followed  by 
religious  characters. 

Now,  though  this  is  undoubtedly  true,  yet  if  Christians  follow 
their  respective  callings  upon  the  same  principles,  with  the  same 
motives,  and  to  the  same  ends  with  the  men  of  the  world — if 
their  Christian  profession  does  not  in  some  discernible  point 
display  its  influence — as  no  distinction  can  be  perceived,  no 
difference  can  be  made.  The  line  is  not  drawn,  they  must  be 
classed  with  the  followers  of  this  world. 

The  inquiry  being  thus  narrowed  within  proper  limits,  we  are 


NON-CONFORMITY   WITH    THE    WORLD.  425 

instructed  that  the  conformity  with  this  world,  against  which 
Christians  are  exhorted,  is  to  be  sought  for,  chiefly,  in  the 
accomodations,  indulgencies,  and  gratifications  with  which  the 
present  Ufe  is  provided  by  the  goodness  of  God.  But  as  the 
rational  and  thankful  enjoyment  of  heaven's  mercies  can  never 
be  charged  with  guilt,  it  must  be  in  the  excess  or  abuse  of  them 
that  the  world  transgresses,  and  in  which  the  Christian  is  exhort- 
ed not  to  be  conformed  to  its  example. 

Thus  is  the  inquiry  brought  to  a  point,  my  brethren,  and  to 
such  a  point  as  puts  within  the  reach  of  every  serious  Christian, 
the  ready  determination  of  this  very  and  increasingly  important 
subject.  Whatever  exceeds  the  measure  of  temperance  in 
enjoyment,  whatever  amounts  to  extravagance  in  self-indul- 
gence, whatever  is  inordinate  in  the  desire  or  pursuit — as  in  all 
these  respects,  what  is  here  styled  this  world  plainly  and  visibly 
transgresses  against  the  voice  of  reason  and  religion,  therefore, 
the  Christian  is  exhorted  to  pursue  a  different  course,  and  one 
more  conformable  to  his  high  and  heavenly  calling — to  his  holy 
profession. 

That  this  method  of  deciding  between  conformity  and  non- 
conformity with  the  world  is  amply  sufficient  for  all  practical 
purposes,  will  be  evident  from  an  example.  In  the  lawful 
endeavour  to  better  his  condition  in  the  world,  and  provide  for 
the  wants  and  accommodations  of  the  present  life,  the  gospel 
enjoins  upon  the  Christian  industry,  care,  and  diligence.  But 
if,  in  the  performance  of  this  necessary  duty,  his  affections 
become  filled  with  the  love  of  money,  either  for  its  own  sake,  or 
through  desire  of  the  indulgences  of  which  it  is  the  ready 
minister — hardening  his  heart  and  closing  his  hand  against  the 
poor  and  needy,  or  tempting  him  to  unrighteous  gain  through 
extortion  and  fraud,  for  the  gratification  of  sensual  indulgence — 
the  use  degenerates  into  the  abuse  ;  the  love  of  the  loorld  and  of 
the  things  that  are  in  it,  supersedes  the  love  of  the  Father,  and  con- 
formity with  the  course  of  its  idolatry  and  folly  marks  him  in  the 
number  of  those  who,  being  unfaithful  in  the  unrighteous  mam- 
mon, shall  not  be  entrusted  with  the  true  riches.  In  like 
manner,  my  brethren,  of  every  duty  relative  to  our  worldly 
condition,  and  of  every  enjoyment  permitted  us  in  it.   If  the  pur- 

VoL.  II.— 54 


426  NON-CONFORMITY    WITH    THE    WORLD. 

suit  of  it  interferes  with  the  higher  duties  we  owe  to  God  and 
our  neighbour,  or  the  indulgence  in  it  endangers  the  interests  of 
our  immortal  souls,  it  amounts  to  that  sinful  conformity  to  this 
world  against  which  we  are  exhorted  in  the  words  of  my  text. 
The  Christian's  charter  as  to  the  things  of  the  world  is  liberal 
and  bountiful — God  giveth  us  all  things  richly  to  enjoy.  But  as 
they  are  only  shadows  of  better  things,  types  of  a  better  and 
more  enduring  substance,  and,  as  such,  a  part  of  our  trial,  the 
Christian  is  affectionately  exhorted  to  use  this  world  as  not 
abusing  it — to  make  to  himself  friends  of  the  mammon  of  unright- 
eousness, in  order  to  ensure  the  true  riches. 

Doubtless  it  has  been  the  secret  wish  of  many  besides  myself 
that  the  Scriptures  had  been  so  framed  as  to  enumerate  and 
point  out  the  various  details  which  are  embraced  in  the  general 
principles  therein  laid  down  for  our  direction.  Particularly  in 
the  case  under  consideration  are  we  disposed  to  wish  that  the 
apostle  had  minutely  described  the  component  parts  of  this 
wide  extended  and  growing  corruption  of  the  gospel.  But  it  is 
a  weak,  though,  I  trust,  not  a  wicked  wish,  my  brethren.  Suf- 
ficient is  done  for  us,  if  we  would  only  make  that  honest  appli- 
cation of  divine  counsel  which  its  importance  calls  for.  But, 
alas  !  we  come  not  to  the  light  lest  our  deeds  shoidd  be  reproved. 
The  world,  indeed,  is  mighty,  its  temptations  powerful,  and  its 
revTards  enticing  ;  but  it  passeth  away,  and  no  place  shall  be 
found  for  it.  Let  the  Chiistian,  then,  look  beyond.  Let  him 
direct  the  eye  of  faith  to  an  incorruptible  inheritance  of  glory 
made  ready  for  every  good  and  faithful  servant.  Thus  shall  the 
temptations  of  the  world  lose  their  power,  and  the  counsel  of 
God's  holy  word  be  sufficient  to  guide  him  through  their  seduc- 
ing vanities,  to  keep  him  from  conformity  with  its  unhallowed 
ways,  and  to  bring  hiui  in  triumph  to  everlasting  habitations  of 
never-ending  felicity. 

As  we  can  thus  derive  from  the  Scriptures  what  is  amply 
.sufficient  to  instruct  us  on  the  duty  of  non-conformity  with  the 
world,  so  are  we  also  furnished  with  means  to  draw  that  line  of 
.separation  between  the  world  and  religion,  which  must  not  be 
passed  over  if  we  would  retain  our  Christian  character.  And 
Iiere,  my  brethren,  as  the  main  difficulty  of  the  present  times 


NON-CONFORMITY    WITH    THE    WORLD.  427 

arises  from  the  gaieties  and  amusements  of  the  world,  I  shall 
confine  myself  to  them.     The  question,  then,  is  :    How  far  can 
the  Christian  partake  of  them  ?    To  this  I  answer.   In  so  far  as 
they  are  not  in  themselves  sinful,  or  have  no  tendency  to  lead 
to  sin   in   others,  the   Christian  can   freely  partake  of  them  : 
beyond  this  he  cannot  go.    But  another  question  arises.    Things 
in  themselves  innocent  become  criminal   by  excess.     Can  the 
Christian  partake  of  what  is  innocent,  and  leave  the  excess  to 
the  world  ?  To  this  I   answer,  No  :  the  Christian  cannot  con- 
sistently countenance,  that,  over  the  excess  and  abuse  of  which 
he  has  no  control.   But,  not  to  multiply  examples,  as  the  gaieties 
and  amusements  contended  for  all  savour  of  extravagance  and 
dissipation,  it  is  but  to  inquire  whence  they  sprung  and  by  whom 
they  are  delighted  in  and  followed,  to  put  to  flight  the  sophistry 
that  would  plead  for  them  as  becoming  among  Christians.    Are 
they  of  Heathen  or  of  Christian  origin  ?  Are  they  of  God  or  of 
the  world  1  Do  the  godly  or  the  ungodly  delight  in  and  follow 
them  1    And  as  the  answer  shall  in  truth  be,  so  let  the  line  be 
drawn  by  every  serious  Christian,  and,  when  drawn,  observed. 
For  by  what  other  name  than  conformity  ivith  this  xoorld  can  it 
be  called,  when  professing  Christians  are  found  partaking  of  the 
revellings,  banquetings,  and   abominable   idolatries  which   the 
profane  and  irreligious  follow  and  delight  in  1    Is  it  by  such  a 
use  of  the  mercies  of  God  that  ihny  present  their  bodies  to  him  as 
a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  ?  Or  is  it  not  rather  yield- 
ing their  members,  as  instruments  of  unrighteousness,  unfa  sin  ? 
Upon  the  same  principle   may  the   line  be  drawn  in  all  other 
cases,  the  excess  in  which  is  sinful.     And  if  this  shall  be  faith- 
fully done   by  professing  Christians,  a  great  reproach  will  be 
rolled   away  from  the  religion  of  the  gospel,  and  the  ungodly 
(this  world)  the  sooner  be  ashamed  of  their  frivolous  and  sinful 
dissipations. 

I  come  now  to  conclude  with  an  enforcement  of  the  duty 
fiom  the  obligations  we  come  under  as  professing  Christians. 

And,  here,  my  brethren,  while  I  feel  grieved  that  an  enforce- 
ment of  this  duty  should  be  so  universally  necessary,  and  par- 
ticularly grieved,  that  so  many  who  call  themselves  Episcopa- 
lians should  stand  in  need  of    edification  on   this  point,  I  am 


428  NON-CONFORMITY    WITH    THE    WORLD. 

happy  that  no  just  view  of  the  religion  we  profess  gives  any 
countenance  or  support  to  this  error. 

This  is  evidenced  by  the  whole  tenour  of  the  gospel.  As 
Jesus  Christ  gave  himself  for  our  sins,  that  he  might  deliver  us 
from  this  present  evil  world,  so  separation  from  the  worlds  dedica- 
tion to  the  service  of  God,  and  obedience  unto  life  are  the 
conditions  on  which  the  promises  of  God  are  made  to  us. 
Wherefore  come  out  from  among  them  and  be  ye  separate,  saith  the 
Lord,  and  touch  not  the  unclean  thing,  and  I  will  receive  you,  and 
I  will  be  a  father  unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be  my  sons  and  daughters^ 
saith  the  Lord  God  Almighty. 

As  tliis  is  evidenced  by  the  whole  tenour  of  the  gospel,  so  is  »t 
confirmed  by  the  entire  structure  of  our  faith  and  form  of  pro- 
fessing it.  Of  this  a  more  striking  illustration  cannot  be  given 
than  is  afforded  in  that  solemn  sacrament,  which  is  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Christian  life,  and  whereby  alone  we  are 
taken  out  of  the  world  and  adopted  into  the  family  of  God.  As 
this  divine  institution  is  the  seal  of  our  regeneration  or  renewal 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  all  religious  instruction,  exhortation,  and 
endeavour  is  grafted  upon  it,  nor  is  it  possible  to  present  a 
Scriptural  hope  to  a  fallen  creature,  which  is  not  founded  on 
the  promises  then  made,  and  the  obligations  then  undertaken. 
Would  to  God  that  all  those  who  have  received  its  seal  would 
but  consider  more  seriously  the  high  responsibilities  they  have 
come  under,  the  grace  they  are  slighting,  and  the  judgment  they 
are  in  hourly  danger  of  encountering ! 

Now  I  take  upon  me  to  say,  that  the  most  prominent  obliga- 
tion undertaken  at  our  baptism,  is,  non-conformity  with  the 
world.  "  Dost  thou  renounce  the  devil  and  all  his  works,  the 
vain  pomp  and  glory  of  the  world,  with  all  covetous  desires  of 
the  same,  and  the  sinful  desires  of  the  flesh,  so  that  thou  wilt 
not  follow  nor  be  led  by  them  1"  "  I  renounce  them  all," 
says  the  applicant  for  baptism,  whether  adult  or  infant.  "  I 
renounce  the  devil"  as  the  god  of  this  world.  "  I  renounce 
the  world"  itself,  in  the  lust  of  the  eyes  and  the  pride  of  life  ; 
and  "I  renounce  the  sinful  desires  of  the  flesh,"  in  those  gratifi- 
cations which  are  earthly,  sensual,  and  devilish.  What  shall 
we  say,  then,  to  these  things,  my  brethren  'i  How  shall  baptized 


NON-CONFORMITY   WITH    THE   WORLD.  429 

persons  make  void  their  own  solemn  contract  with  Almighty 
God  1  How  shall  professing  Christians  escape  from  their 
repeatedly  ratified  renunciation  of  the  world  over  the  broken 
body  and  shed  blood  of  their  Redeemer  and  Saviour  1  My 
baptized  hearers,  there  is  no  escape  from  this  obligation.  My 
professing  brethren,  there  is  no  escape  from  this  duty  but  at  the 
peril  of  your  immortal  souls.  You  have  put  your  hand  to  the 
plough,  and  must  not  look  back.  Holiness  to  the  Lord  is 
stamped  upon  every  baptized  forehead  with  the  seal  of  the 
Spirit.  Wash  not  out  the  sacred  mark  with  the  pollutions  of 
the  workl  !  Rather,  O  rather  renew  and  refresh  the  fading 
impression  in  that  atoning  blood  which  cleanseth  from  all  sin  ; 
and  be  entreated  by  the  mercies  of  God  that  ye  present  your 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  loluch  is  your 
reasonable  service  ;  and  be  not  conformed  to  this  ivorld. 

In  a  very  particular  manner  is  this  subject  and  the  duties 
which  grow  out  of  it  pressed  upon  the  most  serious  attention  of 
those  who  have  this  day  publicly  taken  upon  themselves  and 
renewed  with  God  their  baptismal  engagements  in  the  rite  of 
confirmation.  Having  solemnly,  with  their  own  mouth  and 
consent,  and  openly  before  the  Church  renounced  the  world, 
the  tlesh,  and  the  devil,  they  can  no  longer  be  seen  in  the  idol's 
temple  without  a  surrender  of  every  thing  that  marks  either  the 
sacredness  or  the  consistency  of  a  Christian  profession,  and 
without  incurring  the  far  more  fearful  risk  of  grieving  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  quenching  his  good  motions  in  their  hearts,  to  the 
decay  and  downfall  of  the  religious  principle,  to  the  destruction  of 
that  good  hope  which  the  gospel  imparts  to  the  sincere  and  faith- 
ful, and  to  the  substitution  of  that  miserable  delusion,  of  a  form  of 
godliness  without  the  power  thereof,  under  which  so  many,  who 
will  be  the  fiiends  of  the  world,  are  deceiving  their  own  souls. 
But  my  brethren  who  have  this  day  witnessed  a  good  con- 
fession, keep  in  mind  to  what  you  are  now  pledged,  that  vou 
may  adorn  your  Christian  profession ;  for  only  by  enduring  to 
the  end  can  you  reap  the  reward  laid  up  for  you  in  the  heavenly 
kingdom  of  your  Saviour,  who  warns  you — If  any  man  draw 
back,  my  soul  shall  have  no  pleasure  in  him.  You  must,  indeed, 
go  back  to  your  respective  callings  in  the  world  ;  you  must  meet 


430  NON-CONFORMITY    WITH    THE    WORLD. 

the  temptations  incident  to  your  state  of  trial.  But  you  go  back 
armed  as^ainst  their  power,  and  furnished  to  resist  their  seduc- 
tions, with  the  promises  of  God  renewed,  and  the  help  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  pledged,  and  the  aid  and  countenance,  and  the 
counsel  and  the  prayers  of  the  people  of  God,  engaged  for  your 
encouragement  and  support.  Above  all,  your  Redeemer  takes 
you  by  the  hand  and  bids  you  look  to  his  example,  and  thence 
learn  how  to  oversome  the  world;  and  to  strengthen  you  against 
its  most  powerful  snares,  he  tells  you  to  be  faithful  unto  deaths 
and  he  will  give  you  a  croivn  of  life. 


SERMON  XXXVIII. 


THE    WEDDING    GARMENT. 


Matthew  xxii.  11,  12. 


•  And  when  the  king  came  in  to  see  the  guests,  he  saw  there  a  man  which  had  not 
on  a  wedding  garment ;  and  he  saith  unto  him,  Friend,  how  earnest  thou  in  liither, 
not  having  a  wedding  garment?  And  he  was  spcecliless." 

Had  the  parable  of  which  my  text  forms  a  part  been  spoken 
yesterday,  and  framed  purposely  to  meet  the  manner  in  which 
the  gospel  has  been  received  in  the  world,  a  more  exact  repre- 
sentation of  the  event  could  hardly  have  been  delineated.  To 
the  invitations  of  heavenly  meicy — to  the  glories  of  an  incor- 
ruptible and  unfading  inheritance — to  the  wisdom  of  preparing 
for  the  inevitable  events  of  death  and  judgment,  the  farms  and 
the  merchandize  of  the  world,  the  cares  and  the  pleasures  of 
this  life,  have  exercised,  and  yet  exercise  and  maintain  their 
ascendancy  and  opposition.  With  one  consent,  as  it  were,  men 
yet  begin  to  make  excuse ;  though  even  this  slight  sense  of  the 
unjustifiable  nature  of  their  conduct,  is  fast  failing  among  us, 
and  not  a  ie,vr  are  so  presumptuous  and  hardened  as  to  think 
neglect  and  contempt  of  religion  an  accomplishment. 

To  the  voice  of  reason  and  conscience,  those  two  honest  wit- 
nesses for  the  truth  of  revelation  which  all  have  it  in  their 
power  and  are,  in  some  degree,  obliged  to  hear,  men  yet  turn  a 
deaf  ear,  and,  in  the  hurry  and  bustle  of  the  world,  or  in  the 
chase  of  its  vain  and  vicious  delights,  put  off,  till  a  more  convenient 
season,  the  one  thing  needful — the  care  of  their  immortal  souls. 

To  the  sentence  of  death  pronounced  against  all,  and  daily 
executed  upon  some  in  their  very  sight — to  the  terrors  of  that 
great  and  dreadful  day,  when  we  shall  all  stand  at  the  bar  of 
God  to  be  judged  by  the  word  spoken  to  us  in  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  and  be  consigned  to  everlasting  happiness  or  misery, 
according  to  the  effect  that  word  has  had  upon  our  lives,  whereof 


432  THE    WEDDING    GARMENT. 

assurance  is  given  unto  all  men  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ  from 
the  dead — to  these  things  unbelief  yet  opposes  its  cold,  heartless, 
and  benumbing  influence  ;  rejecting  the  testimony  of  heaven 
and  consciousness ;  reducing  the  great  and  glorious  God  to  a 
cipher,  and  the  creature  he  hath  made  in  his  own  image,  and 
redeemed  with  the  precious  blood  of  his  only  begotten  Son,  to 
a  level  with  the  beasts  that  perish.  For  such  is  the  certain 
consequence  of  those  miscalled  arguments  with  which  infidelity 
tries  to  support  that  dark  and  dreary  system  which  it  opposes  to 
the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  ever  blessed  God. 

But  surely  there  is  a  better  hope  for  man,  would  he  but  seek 
for  it.  Surely  the  opponents  of  the  gospel,  in  an  endeavour  of 
nineteen  hundred  years,  might  have  been  able  to  detect  its 
fallacy  and  to  triumph  over  its  hope,  were  it  less  than  heaven- 
born,  and  everlasting  as  its  Author.  And  surely,  as  this  has 
not  been  done,  as  the  gates  of  hell,  the  power  and  cunning  of 
men  and  devils,  have  not  prevailed  against  it  in  so  long  a  conflict, 
we  may  reasonably  conclude  that  they  never  will,  and  with  one 
consent  cast  away  the  weapons  wherewith  we  have  arrayed 
ourselves  against  it,  and  flee  for  shelter  to  this  impregnable 
citadel  of  truth  and  holiness,  of  faith  and  hope,  of  unshaken 
peace  and  eternal  life ! 

O  that  those  who  have  been  seduced  into  infidelity,  either  by 
their  own  carelessness,  or  by  the  evil  example  of  others,  would 
but  take  a  serious  view  of  what  we  are  with  and  without  Jesus 
Christ,  as  God  over  all  blessed  for  ever  ;  and  let  the  judgment 
of  truth  and  right,  of  reason  and  conscience,  prevail  against  the 
ruinous  sophistry  which  is  leading  them  blindfold  to  destruction. 
O  that  they  would  consider  carefully  this  parable,  and  learn 
thence  what  an  awful  condition  those  are  in  who  are  favoured 
with  the  invitation  of  the  gospel,  and  make  light  of  it.  That 
they  would  count  the  cost  at  which  they  trifle  with  the  waiting 
mercy  of  God,  and  risk  the  approach  of  death  and  judgment 
without  preparation  made  for  either  ;  and  ask  themselves  the 
solemn  question,  What  loill  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ? 

But  it  is  not  to  unbelievers  only  that  this  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture is  calculated  to  be  of  use.     To  professors  of  religion,  and 


THE    WEDDING    GARMENT.  433 

to  all  who,  whether  they  acknowledge  it  or  not,  look  for  any 
benefit  or  advantage  through  Jesus  Christ,  does  it  present  a 
lesson  of  instruction  of  the  deepest  and  most  impressive  charac- 
ter ;  pointing  out,  in  a  manner  not  to  be  mistaken,  that  the  happi- 
ness of  heaven  is  proposed  to  mankind  as  the  reward  of  their 
duty,  and  not  as  the  fate  of  their  nature,  and  can  be  obtained  by 
them  no  otherwise  than  by  the  attainment  of  that  holiness  xcilh- 
out  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord.  This  I  shall  endeavour  to 
illustrate  and  confirm,  by  explaining  what  we  are  to  understand 
by  the  expression  of  having  on  a  wedding  garment,  made  use  of 
by  our  Lord  in  this  parable,  and,  then,  by  some  practical  obser- 
vations upon  the  text. 

Jlnd  ivhen  the  king  came  in  to  see  the  guests,  he  saio  there  a 
man  which  had  not  on  a  wedding  garment;  and  he  saith  unto  him^ 
friend,  how  earnest  thou  in  hither,  not  having  on  a  weddina-  gar- 
ment ?   And  he  tvas  speechless  ! 

L  First,  to  explain  the  figure  used  in  the  text,  of  having  on  a 
wedding  garment. 

Nothing  is  more  common  in  the  inspired  writings  than  to 
express  the  state  of  the  mind,  or  the  condition  of  the  soul,  by 
figures  drawn  from  the  similitude  of  corporeal  things.  Thus 
depicting  what,  from  its  nature,  is  not  obvious  to  sense,  by  what 
is  well  understood  when  applied  to  things  which  are  thus  discern- 
ible. Pure  and  impure,  clean  and  unclean,  when  applied  to 
the  state  of  the  soul,  derive  their  force  and  fitness  from  the 
known  meaning  of  those  words  when  applied  to  the  body  or 
any  other  outward  thing.  And  thus  the  habitual  temper  or  dis- 
position of  a  man's  spirit  or  mind,  cannot  be  more  fitly  expressed 
than  by  the  metaphor  of  a  garment  which  clothes  or  covers  the 
whole  body. 

Thus  the  inexpressible  glory  and  brightness,  the  immaculate 
purity  and  holiness  of  Almighty  God  is  described  in  Scripture, 
by  his  being  clothed  with  majestij  and  honour,  and  decking  him- 
self loith  light  as  with  a  garment.  And  the  habitual  qualities 
of  good  or  evil,  which  determine  a  man's  real  character,  are,  in 
like  manner,  represented  under  the  same  figure.  Thus  a  pro- 
fane, malicious,  revengeful  spirit  is,  according  to  the  Psalmist, 
one  that  clothes  himself  with  cursing,  to  whom  it  is  as  the  cloak 

Vol.  U.—55 


434  THE    WEDDING    GARMENT. 

that  he  has  upon  him,  and  as  the  girdle  that  he  is  alway  girded 
loithal ;  while  a  just,  compassionate,  and  merciful  disposition  is 
set  forth  and  described  under  the  metaphor — /  ivas  eyes  to  the 
blind,  and  feet  was  I  to  the  lame,  says  Job;  Iicas  a  father  to  the  poor, 
and  the  cause  which  I  knew  not  I  searched  out.  I  put  on  righteous- 
ness and  it  clothed  me,  my  judgment  isas  as  a  robe  and  a  diadem. 
The  same  manner  of  expression  is  made  use  of  by  the  prophet 
Isaiah,  when  speaking  of  the  Redeemer  of  Israel.  He  put  on 
righteousness  as  a  breast  plate,  and  loas  clad  ivith  zeal  as  a  cloak. 
In  like  manner,  also,  concerning  those  redeemed  by  him — He 
hath  clothed  me,  says  the  Church,  with  the  garments  of  salvation  ; 
he  hath  covered  me  with  the  robe  of  rigliteousness,  as  a  bride  adorn^ 
eth  herself  icith  her  jewels. 

That  the  same  style  of  speaking  should  be  used  in  the  New- 
Testament  was  to  be  expected  ;  for  the  writers  of  the  New  were 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  figures  and  phraseology  of  the 
Old  Testament.  Indeed  the  latter  was  their  text  book,  and  the 
whole  of  their  preaching  and  writing  was  an  extension  and  illus- 
tration of  that  hidden  wisdom  which  ivas  kept  secret  since  the  world 
began,  but  was  then  made  manifest,  and,  by  the  Scriptures  of  the 
prophets,  made  known  unto  all  nations  for  the  obedience  of  faith. 
Being  written  under  the  direction  of  the  same  spirit,  also, 
which  inspired  the  Old,  we  might  naturally  expect  the  same 
figures  to  be  continued  in  the  New  Testament. 

In  the  book  of  the  Revelations  more  especially,  the  particular 
figure  under  consideration  is  largely  applied.  In  the  vision 
which  St.  John  had  of  the  Church  in  heaven,  the  elders  are 
represented  as  sitting  before  the  throne  of  God,  clothed  in  white 
raiment,  and  the  nations  of  them  that  are  saved,  as  standing 
before  the  throne  clothed  in  while  robes.  And  the  faith  and 
perseverance  of  the  saints  is  denoted  by  their  having  on  undefiled 
garments.  Blessed,  says  our  Lord,  is  he  that  watcheth  and  keep- 
eth  his  garments,  for  they  that  have  not  defiled  their  garments  shall 
walk  with  me  in  ivhite.  Could  any  doubt  or  difficulty,  however, 
remain  on  this  manner  of  speaking,  it  is  fully  cleared  up  by  the 
representation  of  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb  made  in  the 
nineteenth  chapter,  which  is  exactly  parallel  to  the  parable  in 
the  gospel  from  which  my  text  is  taken.     The  marriage  of  the 


THE    WEDDING    GARMENT.  435 

Lamb  is  come,  and  his  ^oife,  the  Church,  hath  made  herself  ready ; 
and  to  her  was  granted  that  she  should  be  arrayed  in  fine  llneny 
deem  and  ivhite,  for  the  fine  linen  is  the  righteousness  of  the  saints. 

Hence  we  may  understand  clearly  what  is  meant  by  the 
figurative  expression  of  a  wedding  garment,  made  use  of  in  my 
text ;  and  should  learn  that  the  person  whom  the  king  saw  among 
the  guests  at  the  marriage  supper  of  his  son,  thus  unfurnished, 
is  every  person  who,  making  a  profession  of  religion,  yet 
practices  not  the  duties  and  the  virtues  of  a  Christian  life  ; 
who,  according  to  another  and  a  similar  manner  of  speaking, 
hath  not  washed  his  robes  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  xcho  hath  the 
form  but  not  the  power  of  godliness,  who  hath  not  crucified  the 
jiesh  with  the  affections  and  lusts  of  a  fallen  nature,  overcome  the 
world,  and  become  a  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus.  In  a  word, 
all  who  expect  to  be  saved  by  Christ,  yet  are  regardless  of 
the  only  condition  on  which  that  salvation  depends — every 
profane,  every  unjust,  unrighteous,  and  debauched  person, 
whom  the  repeated  invitations  of  Christ  in  the  gospel  bring  not 
to  a  timely  and  effectual  repentance,  nor  to  the  attainment  of 
that  holiness  xoilhout  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord. 

From  the  explanation  of  this  figurative  expression  in  my  text, 
we  may  learn,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  to  understand  aright 
many  other  passages  of  Scripture,  in  which  that  change  in  the 
moral  habit  of  the  mind,  which  true  religion  always  produces,  is 
denoted  and  represented  by  putting  off  and  putting  on  the 
habiliments  of  the  body — Thus :  Put  ye  off,  concerning  the  former 
conversation,  the  old  man — and  put  ye  on  the  new  man,  which^ 
after  God,  is  created  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness.  Put 
off  the  body  of  the  sins  of  the  flesh.  Put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  make  not  provision  for  the  flesh  to  fulfil  the  lusts 
thereof.  For  as  many  of  you  as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ, 
have  put  on  Christ  ; — expressions  which  are  surely  level  to 
every  comprehension,  and  the  more  so  from  the  familiar  nature 
of  the  figure  made  use  of;  and  which  demonstrate  to  us,  would 
we  but  be  taught  by  heaven  in  preference  to  men,  that  religion 
is  not  a  sudden  start  of  feeling,  nor  the  attainment  of  some 
undescribable  and  much  to  be  doubted  impulse  and  impression 
upon  the  mind,  once  for  all — but  the  abiding  influence  of  faith 


THE    WEDDING    GARMENT. 

in  the  revealed  promises  and  threatenings  of  Almighty  God, 
bearing  fruit  unto  holiness  in  the  life,  and  relied  upon  for  accept- 
ance, only  through  the  mediation  and  atonement  of  Jesus 
Christ,  unto  eternal  salvation.  This,  and  this  only,  my 
brethren  and  hearers,  will  be  allowed  as  the  wedding  garment — 
the  preparation  for  and  passport  to  eternal  life,  in  the  kingdom 
of  Christ  and  of  God. 

II.  Secondly,  I  proposed  to  make  some  practical  observations 
upon  the  text,  to  confirm  this  only  condition  of  salvation. 

First,  by  the  king's  coming  in  to  view  the  guests,  we  are 
warned  of  the  judgment  that  will  pass  upon  us,  and  that  our 
everlasting  condition  will  be  determined  by  the  preparation  made 
for  it  in  the  present  life.  If,  therefore,  our  religion  be  alto- 
gether an  external  formality,  shown  only  on  the  Sabbath  or 
other  occasions  of  public  worship  ;  or  if  it  is  only  manifested 
by  occasional  fits  of  devotion,  interrupted  and  put  to  flight  by 
the  cares  or  pleasures  of  the  world,  instead  of  being  what  it 
ought,  the  main  occupation  of  our  lives,  the  habit  and  investi- 
ture of  the  soul ;  certain  we  may  be,  that  the  question,  How 
earnest  thou  in  hither?  will  find  us,  also,  speechless.  For  just  as 
surely  as  we  can  all  ])erceive  the  unfitness  and  absurdity  of 
permitting  a  mean,  sordid,  and  loathsome  person  to  associate 
and  mix  with  those  of  an  opposite  description,  in  the  select 
assemblies  of  this  world,  so  clearly  may  we  understand  how 
infinitely  more  unseemly  it  must  be,  to  permit  such  an  indignity 
to  be  offered  to  the  pure  society  of  heaven.  In  His  sight,  with 
whom  we  shall  have  to  do  in  that  trying  day,  sin — that  is, 
any  moral  impurity  whatever — is  more  odious  than  the  most 
disgusting  object  in  nature  can  be  in  ours.  Therefore,  no  place 
shall  be  found  for  it  in  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  ;  for  into  that 
there  shall  in  no  case  enter  any  thing  that  dejileth,  neither  whatso- 
ever worketh  abomination  or  maketh  a  lie. 

Secondly,  in  the  question  put  by  the  king  to  the  improper 
and  unprovided  guest,  at  his  son's  wedding,  we  are  warned, 
my  brethren,  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  false  or  ill-grounded 
hope — that  there  are  deceitful  expectations  which  may  betray 
men  into  perdition.     It  therefore  behoves    us  all,  to  be  very 


THE    WEDDING   GARMENT.  437 

careful  and  honest  in  examining  both  the  foundation  and  super- 
structure of  our  hope. 

Friend  how  earnest  thou  in  hither  1  Upon  what  pretence,  upon 
what  ground,  with  what  expectation  didst  thou  come  in  hither, 
not  having  on  a  wedding  garment  ?  From  this  it  would  appear, 
that  we  are  furnished  with  the  means  of  ascertaining  our  fitness 
for  heaven,  and  are  bound  to  use  them  faithfully  ;  otherwise 
the  question  would  not  have  been  a  fair  one,  for  we  read  that 
he  was  invited  to  come.  Now  this  fitness,  we  are  instructed, 
consists  in  our  conformity  to  the  law  of  life  in  the  gospel.  The 
person,  therefore,  who  labours  and  strives  to  bring  his  life  to  the 
standard  of  the  gospel — whose  habitual  practice  it  is  to  follovir 
the  example  of  Christ — whose  daily  endeavour  it  is  to  watch 
against  sin,  and  grow  in  grace — who  devoutly  trusts  in  God, 
through  Christ,  for  the  fulfilment  of  all  his  promises,  and  is 
diligent  in  the  use  of  the  means  of  grace — such  a  person  has  the 
concurring  testimony  of  God's  word  and  his  own  conscience, 
that  he  shall  be  allowed  to  sit  down  and  eat  bread  in  the  king- 
dom of  God.  And  though,  not  unfrequently,  great  fears  and 
unreasonable  despondencies  may  haunt  and  trouble  such  an 
one,  yet  this  is  his  infirmity  and  not  his  fault;  and  the  only  dis- 
advantage attending  it  is  the  uneasiness  to  himself,  while  it  may 
be  and  often  is  overruled,  to  increase  his  watchfulness  and 
diligence.  It  is  not  given  to  every  real  Christian  to  triumph  in 
faith,  but  the  fruits  of  faith  must  he  found  in  all  who  would  sit 
down  at  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  men,  with  a  course  of  life  however 
orderly  and  decent,  yet  manifest  no  regard  for  religion,  who  are 
neither  known  as  professors  of  religion,  nor  as  followers  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  ;  or  if  professors  of  religion,  are,  notwithstanding, 
followers  of  the  world,  intent  on  its  poor  reward,  whether  of 
profit  or  pleasure  ;  when  such  persons  have  yet  a  presump- 
tuous hope  of  the  favour  of  God,  the  error  is  fatal,  and  surely 
leads  to  destruction.  No  matter  how  ingenious  they  may  be  in 
devising  some  expedient  to  satisfy  their  own  minds — no  matter 
how  strong  the  ground  may  appear  from  Scripture  on  which 
they  build  their  hope  ;  it  is  all  a  delusion  of  the  god  of  this 
world,  if  a  holy  and  religious  life  is  not  the  fruit  of  theu  faith. 


438  THE    WEDDING    GARMENT. 

Trust  in  the  mercy  of  God — faith  in  the  decrees  of  God — reli- 
ance on  the  merits  of  Christ,  though  all  of  them  ingredients 
in  the  Christian  character,  are  none  of  them,  singly,  the  wedding 
garment  mentioned  in  my  text.  Therefore  it  is,  that  our  blessed 
Lord  is  always  so  plain  and  explicit  on  this  point,  that  none  can 
excusably  be  deceived.  The  wedding  garment  is  a  holy  and 
religious  life,  springing  from  faith  in  God  and  in  his  word. 
Without  this,  every  hope  will  perish,  and,  How  earnest  thou  in 
hither,  not  having  on  a  wedding  garment  ?  will  seal  up  every 
tongue  in  speechless  dismay.  Then  shall  every  presumptuous, 
unscriptural  hope  be  like  the  house  built  upon  the  sand ;  and 
thus  shall  many  seek  to  enter  in,  hut  shall  not  be  able — for  not 
every  one  that  saith  unto  me  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven — but  he  that  doeth  the  icill  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven. 

Thirdly,  from  the  circumstance  of  the  unqualified  guest 
being  speechless  when  inquired  of  respecting  his  coming  unpre- 
pared, we  are  warned,  my  hearers,  that  all  false  pretenders  to 
religion  will  vanish  and  fade  away  before  the  heart-searching 
judgment  of  God.  However  we  may  now  allow  interest,  or 
passion,  or  prejudice  to  wrest  the  word  of  God,  and  warp  our 
own  judgment  and  conscience  in  favour  of  some  corrupt  depar- 
ture from  the  spirit  of  religion,  some  accommodation  of  the  law 
of  life  with  the  world  and  the  flesh,  there  will  then  be  no  place 
found  for  them.  However  triumphantly  we  may  have  reasoned 
and  argued  here  in  favour  of  this  and  that  invention  of  men  in 
th€  great  concern  of  our  souls,  and,  with  great  swelling  icords 
of  vanity,  have  drawn  multitudes  away  from  the  simplicity  that 
is  in  Christ,  our  mouths  will  then  be  stopped,  the  resources  of 
our  ciooked  tongues  cut  off,  and  the  ingenuity  and  cunning  of 
our  fleshly  wisdom  confounded.  We  shall  be  speechless — not 
because  we  cannot  or  are  not  permitted  to  speak,  but  because 
we  have  nothing  to  say  ;  because  conscience,  our  own  internal 
conviction  of  truth  and  right,  long  unheeded,  but  now  revived, 
testifies  against  us — anticipates  and  confirms  the  righteous  judg- 
ment of  God  on  our  neglect,  corruption,  and  abuse  of  the  wise 
appointment  of  his  mercy  to  reform  and  save  us.  Oh  !  it  will 
be  a  uiarful  moment  to  the  unbelieving,  impenitent,  and  ungodly 


THE    WEDDING    GARMENT.  439 

— to  the  presumptuous  intermeddlers  with  God's  true  and  faith- 
ful word,  who  have  added  to  or  taken  from  it  to  suit  their  own 
corrupt  notions — who  have  wrested  it  to  support  doctrines  of 
men,  or  to  make  void  the  commandments  of  God — when  the 
sandy  foundation  on  which  they  have  built  begins  to  give  way, 
and  they  feel  and  own  the  justice  of  that  righteous  sentence  under 
which  they  perish  for  ever  !  Oh  !  it  will  be  an  awful  instant  to 
loose,  hypocritical,  professors  of  religion  who  partake  at  the 
Lord's  table  in  church,  and  yet  are  found  sitting  at  meat  in 
the  idol's  temple — by  following  the  vain  amusements  and  sinful 
pleasures  of  the  world,  when  the  wedding  garment  is  called 
for,  and  all  who  are  found  unfurnished  are  driven  from  the 
marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb — from  the  eternal  feast  of  love 
and  joy  in  the  presence  of  God,  to  mess  with  the  devils  and 
damned  spirits  in  the  dark  and  hopeless  regions  of  endless 
despair  and  everlasting  misery  !  My  fellow  sinner,  if  thy  heart 
now  condemns  thee,  if  conscience  now  whispers  that  thou  art  the 
man  who  ar*^^  unprovided — O,  bethink  thee  how  much  more  God, 
who  is  greater  than  thy  heart,  must  condemn  thee  !  O  consider 
how  much  more  loudly  thy  conscience  will  give  judgment  against 
thee  when  all  its  powers  shall  be  revived  and  restored,  and  this 
witness  for  God  shall  testify  to  all  the  good  motions  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  thy  heart,  and  to  the  vain  reasoning  and  refuges  of 
lies  wherewith  sin  and  unbelief  now  stifle  its  saving  admonitions  ! 
and  now,  while  it  is  called  to-day — while  mercy  spares  and  grace 
waits,  while  icisdom  utters  its  warning  voice,  and  the  Spirit  and 
the  bride  say,  come — turn  to  the  Lord  ye  prisoners  of  hope,  seek 
the  Lord  iohile  he  may  be  found — call  upon  him  while  he  is  near, 
and  he  shall  bring  you  up  from  the  pit  of  destruction,  from  the 
miry  clay  of  sin  and  its  deceits,  and  set  your  feet  upon  a  rock  ; 
he  shall  put  a  new  song  in  your  mouths,  giving  you  the  garment 
of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness,  and  a  robe  of  righteousness  for 
a  icedding  garment  in  which  to  sit  dotcn  at  the  marriage  supper  of 
the  Lamb.  O,  be  persuaded  by  the  tender  mercy  of  our  God — 
by  the  kindness  and  condescension  wherewith  he  is  represented 
in  this  parable  as  treating  this  imworthy  and  presumptuous 
guest — Friend,  how  earnest  thou  in  hither — be  persuaded  to  believe 


440  THE    AVEDDING    GARMENT. 

what  a  real  concern  God  entertains  for  the  salvation  of  men  ; 
and  be  encouraged  to  break  off  your  sins  by  repentance,  and  your 
iniquities  by  righteousness.     Hear  him  declaring  that  he  is  not 
willing  that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  repent- 
ance.    Hear  him  arguing  with  you,  by  his  word  and  ministers, 
from  reason,  from  conscience,  from  duty,  from  interest,  from 
time  and  eternity,  from  heaven  and  from  hell^.to  consider  the 
things  which  make  for  your  everlasting  peace  in  the  short  and 
uncertain,  but  by  his  grace  sufficient,  limit  wherein  to  secure 
them.  Behold  him  so  loving  a  world  of  sinners,  that  he  gave  his 
only  begotten  Son  to  redeem  and  save  them,  and  let  the  good- 
ness of  God  lead  you  to  repentance.     For  his  unchangeable 
word  is  passed,  that  except  ye  repent  ye  shall  perish.     And  let 
the  fate  of  this  poor  man  who  had  not  on  a  wedding  garment 
exemplify  to  us  all,  my  friends,  the  just  and  gracious  deaUng 
of  Almighty  God  with  his  creatures.     Let  us  look  at  his  state 
and  apply  it  to  ourselves.     Reprieved  from  eternal  death  by  the 
ransom  of  the  cross  ;  called  and  invited  to  the  heavenly  feast 
of  God's  reconciled  love  and  everlasting  favour,  through  Jesus 
Christ  ;  warned  and  instructed  in  the  preparation  required, 
and  furnished  to  make  it,  yet  careless  and  negligent  of  this 
distinguishing  privilege  ;   making  light  of  the  message  itself,  and 
drawn  away  from   this  heavenly  inheritance  by  the  perishing 
concerns  of  the  world — see  him  surprised  by  the  hasty  sum- 
mons,  Jill  things  are  ready,  come  to  the  marriage.     Short  time 
is  given  for  preparation,  and,  as  there  is  much  to  do,  it  cannot 
be   well   done.     But  something  must  be  done,  for  there  is  no 
putting  off  when  death  calls — no  escaping  from  the  summons. 
Mustering    up,    therefore,   what    he    can    remember   of    the 
morality   of  this  life,  whatever  of   constitutional  kindness   he 
may  have   showed  to  his  fellow  creatures,  and,  adding  to  this, 
what  he  has  heard  of  the  mercy  of  God  and  of  the  merits   of 
Christ,  while  his  sins  are  unthought  of  as  sins  or  smothered 
up  in   secrecy — see    him   pass   through  the  gate  of  death   to 
the  marriage  feast  of  the  Lamb  once  slain  for  sins,  but  now 
exalted  for  glory  and  judgment.     Behold   him  sit  down  with 
the  the  countless  myriads  who  are  also  invited,  and  wait  for 


THE   WEDDING    GARMENT.  441 

the  master  of  the  feast  to  assign  to  each  his  proper  place.  In 
anxious  suspcnce  they  wait  for  his  approach,  when  he,  whose/an 
is  in  his  hand,  and  who  will  thorougly  purge  his  floor,  advances — 
discerns  at  a  glance  every  false  pretence  to  religion,  and  with  a 
Friend,  hoio  earnest  thou  in  hither  without  a  icedding  garment  ? — 
strips  the  self-righteous  robe  from  the  speechless  moralist,  the 
sanctified  mask  from  the  confounded  hypocrite;  and  commanding 
the  servants  to  bind  them  hand  and  foot,  and  cast  them  into  outer 
darkness,  delivers  his  heavenly  inheritance,  the  Church  which 
he  bought  with  his  own  blood,  from  all  things  that  offend,  that 
he  may  present  it  a  glorious  Church  without  spot  before  God  for 
ever. 

And  is  not  this  our  case,  my  hearers  1  Yes — to  this  ordeal 
we  must  come,  through  this  trial  we  must  all  pass  to  our 
eternal  destination.  How,  then,  are  we  prepared  for  it  1  Are 
we  known  to  the  Lord  Jesus  as  professors  of  his  only  saving 
name  t  Is  he  known  to  us  as  the  Lord  our  righteousness  1 
Is  his  power  manifested  in  us  by  victory  over  sin  1  Are  we 
hungering  and  thirsting  after  righteousness  ?  Are  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit  ripening  in  our  lives  ]  Is  the  world  overcome  and 
heaven  realized,  or  are  we  grovelling  in  the  mire  of  temporal 
things,  prefering  a  portion  in  time  to  the  rewards  of  eternity  1 
O,  be  honest  with  your  immortal  souls,  and  meet  your  actual 
condition  now,  while  there  is  space  for  repentance,  and  room 
for  amended  life,  while  mercy  may  be  sought,  and  pardon  may  be 
found.  Bring  home  to  your  meditations  that  awful  moment 
when  the  king  shall  come  in  to  see  the  guests  invited  by  the 
gospel  to  his  son's  marriage  feast — think  of  the  horror  and 
amazement  that  will  then  seize  every  careless,  unbelieving, 
impenitent  sinner !  And  O,  think  of  the  everlasting  misery 
which  awaits  those  who  shall  then  be  found  unprovided  with 
the  wedding  garment  !  of  the  iceeping  and  icailing  and  gnashing 
of  teeth  which  shall  fill  that  doleful  place  of  outer  darkness  into 
which  they  shall  be  cast  out  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  the 
glory  of  his  power,  for  ever. 

O  that  professing  Christians  of  all  classes  would  keep  the 
moral  of  this  parable  continually  before  them  ;  and  remember 
that  it  is  not  crying  Lord,  Lord,  that  it  is  not  talking  of  love  to 

Vol.    II.— 56 


442  THE    WEDDING    GARMENT. 

Jesus,  that  it  is  not  being  stirred  up  to  excited  feeling  now 
and  then,  nor  even  to  shoutings  and  other  convulsive  indications 
of  an  unbalanced  mind,  that  will  pass  them  to  the  right  hand 
on  the  great  day  of  eternity,  but  the  keeping  the  command- 
ments of  God.  That  not  those  who  think  or  say  that  they  have 
the  Spirit  of  God,  but  those  who  are  led  by  the  Spirit,  and 
bring  forth  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  in  all  goodness,  and  righteous- 
ness, and  truth  are  the  sons  of  God  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom ;  and 
that  the  wedding  garment  is  not  to  be  given  and  put  upon  us  in 
heaven,  but  must  be  carried  with  us  from  this  world,  must  be 
obtained  and  worn  in  the  present  life,  by  patient  continuance  in  well 
doing,  if  we  hope  to  wear  it  in  all  its  unspotted  lustre  in  the  life 
that  is  to  come.  O  that  God  would  be  pleased  to  grant  an  entrance 
to  these  his  truths  to  the  hearts  of  all  present,  to  the  destruction 
of  the  many  soul-killing  deceits  that  are  at  work  in  the  religious 
world,  and  to  the  establishment  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion 
in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  all  his  redeemed  people  !     Amen. 

In  an  especial  manner,  let  us,  my  brethren,  who  are  about 
to  approach  the  table  of  the  Lord  in  his  Church,  keep  steadily 
before  us  the  deep  lesson  of  my.  text.  In  some  respects  this  feast 
of  a  Saviour's  love  is  an  emblem  of  that  to  which  we  are  invited 
in  heaven,  and  to  which  we  can  only  come  acceptably  through 
the  grace  of  which  this  is  one  of  the  channels.  To  obtain  that 
grace,  we  must  come  suitably  prepared  ;  for  there  is  a  wedding 
garment  necessary  to  this  supper,  as  well  as  to  the  marriage 
supper  of  the  Lamb.  The  wedding  garment  now  required  is, 
repentance  toward  God,  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
forgiveness  of  all  who  have  done  us  evil,  and  unfeigned  love  of 
the  brethren.  These,  if  they  be  in  us,  and  abound,  make  us  that 
we  shall  be  neither  barren  nor  unfruitful  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  prepare  us  to  partake 
worthily  of  these  proofs  of  a  Saviour's  love,  and  to  receive  from 
his  fulness  that  grace  and  spiritual  help  which  is  treasured  up  in 
him  for  his  people. 

Put  on,  then,  dearly  beloved,  the  whole  armour  of  God  here, 
that  ye  may  be  able  to  stand  in  the  evil  day,  that  ye  may  triumph 
over  the  world  and  its  vanities,  the  flesh  and  its  lusts,  the  devil 
and  his  delusions ;  that,  having  kept  the  faith,  and  adorned  the 


THE    WEDDING    GARMENT.  443 

doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour,  you  may,  clothed  with  the  wedding 
garment  of  righteousness  and  true  holiness,  enter  in  through  the 
gates  into  the  city,  and  sit  down  with  the  King  at  his  table  to  the 
everlasting  feast  of  God's  unclouded  presence  and  unchange- 
able favour. 


SERMON  XXXIX 


PARABLE    OF    THE    TALENTS- 


Matthe'v  XXV.  14 — 80. 

"  For  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  as  a  man  travelling  into  a  far  comitry,  who  called 
his  own  servants,  and  delivered  unto  them  his  goods.  And  unto  one  he  gave  five 
talents,  to  another  two,  and  to  another  one  ;  to  every  man  according  to  his  several 
abiUty  ;  and  straightway  took  his  journey.  Then  he  that  had  received  the  five 
talents,  went  and  traded  with  the  same,  and  made  them  other  five  talents.  And 
likewise  he  that  had  received  two,  he  also  gained  other  two.  But  he  that  had 
received  one,  went  and  digged  in  the  earth,  and  hid  his  lord's  money.  After  a 
long  time  the  lord  of  those  servants  cometh,  and  reckoneth  with  them.  And  so 
he  that  had  received  five  talents,  came  and  brought  other  five  talents,  saying.  Lord, 
thou  deliveredst  unto  me  five  talents:  behold,  I  have  gained  besides  them  five 
talents  more.  His  lord  said  unto  him,  Well  done,  thou  good  and  fiutliful  servant ; 
thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many  things : 
enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  lord.  He  also  that  had  received  two  talents  came, 
and  said,  Lord,  thou  deliveredst  unto  me  two  talents  :  behold,  I  have  gained  two 
other  talents  besides  them.  His  lord  said  unto  him,  Well  done,  good  and  faithful 
servant ;  thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over 
many  things :  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  lord.  Then  he  which  had  received 
the  one  talent  came,  and  said,  Lord  I  knew  thee  that  thou  art  a  hard  man,  reap- 
ing where  thou  hast  not  sown,  and  gathering  where  thou  hast  not  strewed :  and  I 
was  afraid,  and  went  and  hid  thy  talent  in  the  earth  :  lo,  there  thou  hast  that  is 
thine.  His  lord  answered  and  said  mito  him.  Thou  wicked  and  slothful  servant, 
thou  knewest  that  I  reap  where  I  sowed  not,  and  gather  where  I  have  not  strewed : 
thou  oughtest  therefore  to  have  put  my  money  to  the  exchangers,  and  then  at  my 
coming  I  should  have  received  mine  own  with  usury.  Take  therefore  the  talent 
from  hun,  and  give  it  unto  him  which  hath  ten  talents.  For  unto  every  one  that 
hath  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  abundance  :  but  from  him  that  hath  not, 
shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath.  And  cast  ye  the  unprofitable  servant 
into  outer  darkness :  there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth." 

This  is  a  long  text,  my  friends,  but  I  am  very  sure  that  none 
but  inspired  wisdom  could  say  so  much  in  as  few  words.  Were  it 
proper  to  speak  absolutely  and  without  qualification  of  the 
importance  to  us  of  different  passages  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  I 
should  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  that  one  which  I  have  just 
read,  of  more  value  than  any  other.  But  as  it  would  be  pre- 
sumptuous to  give  an  unqualified  preference  to  a  part  where  all 


PARABLE  OF  THE  TALENTS.  445 

is  of  vital  interest  and  unspeakable  value,  I  will  only  say  this, 
that  for  practical  use  and  general  application  it  is  more  happily 
and  wisely  adapted  than  any  other  single  passage  in  the  word 
ofGoD. 

The  mysterious  doctrines  of  our  religion,  by  which  1  mean 
those  which  are  above  our  reason,  and  derive  their  value  and 
importance  to  us  from  their  Author,  and  from  their  intimate 
connexion  with  the  whole  plan  of  redemption — such  as  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the  incarnation  of  the  second  person  in 
that  ineffable  union,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  the  operation 
of  divine  grace  in  our  hearts,  with  many  others  that  might  be 
named,  deserve  all  the  attention  which  Christians  can  give  them, 
and  are  to  be  received  and  believed,  simply  on  the  authority  of 
the  Revealer.  The  preceptive  parts  of  Christianity,  also,  being 
consonant  to  the  highest  reason,  and  the  purest  morality,  and 
productive  of  all  the  happiness  mortals  can  attain  to,  demand,  on 
the  ground  both  of  duty  and  of  interest,  the  most  hearty  and  dili- 
gent observance.  Yet  they  nevertheless  want  that  familiar  ap- 
plication to  each  one's  personal  concerns,  that  concentration,  if 
I  may  so  speak,  of  all  that  both  doctrine  and  precept  lead  to, 
which  we  find  in  the  parable  of  the  talents.  So  lively  and  forci- 
ble is  the  lesson  therein  contained,  that  no  one  can  read  it 
attentively,  without  feeling  the  immediate  bearing  it  has  upon  him- 
self,  as  an  accountable  creature ;  without  perceiving,  at  a  glance, 
as  it  were,  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  religion  of  the  gospel, 
and  the  exceeding  goodness  of  God -our  Saviour  in  furnishing 
accountable  creatures  for  that  judgment,  whose  equitable  rule  is 
manifested  in  the  parable,  by  example. 

The  great  purpose  of  the  present  life,  and  the  object  of  pubhc 
instruction  from  the  pulpit,  being  to  awaken  men  to  the  care  of 
their  souls,  and  to  prepare  them  for  another  and  a  better,  to 
that  end  I  shall  consider  the  parable  in  my  text,  not  in  a  minute 
subdivision  of  the  doctrines,  but  as  a  general  fund  of  instruction 
and  exhortation. 

By  the  word  talent  we  are  not  to  understand  any  one  particu- 
lar qualification  or  advantage,  either  temporal  or  spiritual,  either 
of  mind,  body,  or  estate  ;  but,  whatever  in  the  present  life  can  be 
applied  to  promote  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  good  of  our  fellow 


446  PARABLE    OP    THE    TALENTS. 

creatures.  This  is  the  best  practical  explanationof  the  word  which 
I  can  give  you ;  the  most  comprehensive  in  its  application  ;  the 
most  consonant  with  the  duties  arising  from  the  unequal  condi- 
tion of  this  life,  which  it  is  one  great  object  of  Christianity  to 
equalize  ;  and  the  one  which  agrees  the  most  perfectly  with  the 
equity  of  that  judgment,  in  which  we  shall  all  soon  have  to  meet 
our  God.  This,  my  friends,  is  what  gives  to  this  passage  of 
Scripture  its  peculiar  force  and  impression.  Do  what  we  will, 
we  can  escape  from  the  fairness  and  reasonableness  of  its  appli- 
cation no  otherwise,  than  by  putting  away  from  us  every  reli- 
gious consideration,  and  desperately  shutting  our  eyes,  and 
closing  our  ears,  and  hardening  our  hearts,  against  the  united 
testimony  of  revelation  and  conscience. 

Another  remark,  more  applicable  to  this  parable,  perhaps, 
than  to  any  which  our  Lord  put  forth,  and  well  worthy  of  your 
notice,  is  this — there  is  in  it  no  difficulty  of  interpretation.  The 
moral  is  not  hid  in  the  depth  of  the  allusion,  nor  can  an  errone- 
ous mystical  meaning  be  drawn  from  it.  It  comes  home  to  the 
every  day  business  of  human  life  ;  sets  before  us,  in  a  manner 
not  to  be  mistaken,  one  grand  and  leading  principle  for  the 
regulation  of  conduct,  embracing  every  possible  condition  in 
this  our  probationary  state  ;  and  presents  religion  to  our  notice 
and  regard,  not  as  a  system  of  speculative  truth,  but  as  a  faithful, 
active,  and  diligent  improvement  of  whatever  God  hath  been 
pleased  to  bestow  upon  us. 

This  much  may  suffice  as  to  the  importance  of  the  parable 
itself     The  instruction  we  may  draw  from  it,  is  as  follows  : 

I.  First.  Whatever  our  condition  in  the  present  life  may  be,  it 
is  the  appointment  of  a  wise  and  gracious  God,  who  proportions 
his  gifts,  not  by  an  arbitrary  and  capricious  choice,  but  by  the 
fixed  and  settled  order  of  that  Providence  in  which  he  governs 
the  universe ;  and  with  a  foresight  of  the  part  each  individual 
has  to  act.  This  is  clearly  pointed  out  to  us  in  the  commence- 
ment of  the  parable — He  called  his  own  servants,  and  delivered 
unto  them  his  goods ;  to  every  inan  according  to  his  several  ability. 

This  doctrine,  we  are  all  ready  enough  to  admit ;  but  we  do 
not  extend  it  as  far  as  we  ought,  being  disposed  to  confine  it  to 
those  qualifications  of  mind  and  body  which  are  confessedly  not 


PARABLE    OF    THE    TALENTS.  447 

of  our  own  procuring  in  any  sense,  such  as  beauty  or  deformity 
of  person,  health  and  strength  of  body,  soundness  of  mind,  with 
all  the  grades  of  genius,  as  it  is  called,  in  other  words,  a  capa- 
city to  acquire  knowledge,  either  generally  or  in  some  particular 
branch  of  science,  together  with  situations  in  life,  productive  of 
events,  whether  good  or  evil,  which  leave  a  permanent  charac- 
ter behind  them.  These,  and  such  like,  we  readily  enough  at- 
tribute, at  least  in  words,  to  the  special  gift  of  God.  But  to 
entertain  this  doctrine  as  we  ought,  we  must  include  much  more ; 
even  all  that  is  not  evidently  the  result  of  our  own  crimes  and 
follies.  These  last,  indeed,  are  provided,  both  for  and  against, 
in  the  infinite  comprehension  of  God's  overruling  wisdom  ;  but 
they  can  never  be  considered  as  talents,  that  is,  as  improveable 
gifts  ;  for  in  so  doing,  we  should  make  God  the  author  of  sin. 
Hence,  my  brethren,  we  are  instructed,  that  our  original  condi- 
tion, as  respects  the  advantages  or  disadvantages  of  birth  and 
fortune,  the  moral  qualities  of  temper  and  disposition,  the  means, 
time,  and  opportunity  afforded,  are  all  in  the  number  of  those 
gifts  of  God,  here  represented  to  us  by  the  word  talent.  To  the 
inquiry,  why  to  one  is  given  five,  to  another  two,  and  to  another 
one  1  we  can  give  no  other  answer,  than  that  infinite  goodness 
and  wisdom  so  willed  ;  nor  are  we  concerned  to  know.  Indeed, 
no  benefit  could  arise  from  the  knowledge,  beyond  the  satisfac- 
tion of  a  vain  curiosity.  The  point  of  wisdom  for  us  to  be  en- 
gaged about  is,  the  number  and  magnitude  of  those  committed  to 
ourselves.  We  have  not  to  answer  for  each  other — Every  one 
shall  give  account  of  himself  to  God. 

II.  Secondly.  We  are  instructed  from  the  text,  that  whatever 
we  possess,  be  it  more  or  be  it  less,  is  not  our  own,  in  the  sense 
we  attach  to  ownership.  All  should  be  considered  as  the  pro- 
perty of  the  "  Giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift,"  to  be  used 
in  his  service,  and  applied  according  to  his  direction.  We  hold 
in  trust,  my  brethren,  and  a  trust  of  a  complicated  nature. 

First,  and  in  the  highest  sense,  to  the  use,  honour,  and  glory 
of  the  giver.  Whether  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  lohatever  ye  do,  do 
all  to  the  glory  of  God  ;  which  means,  briefly,  this — to  keep  a 
continual  sense  of  God  upon  our  minds,  and  truly  to  intend  and 
earnestly  to  promote  the  advancement  of  his  kingdom  among 


448  PARABLE    OP    THE    TALENTS, 

men,  in  the  prevalence  of  righteousness,  mercy,  and  truth  in  the 
world. 

Secondly,  to  our  own  benefit  and  advantage,  in  a  temperate, 
thankful  use  of  his  blessings,  and  in  a  diligent  improvement  of 
whatever  he  has  bestowed  upon  us,  God  giveth  us  all  things 
richly,  to  enjoy.  He  debars  us  from  nothing  that  is  not  in  some 
shape  hurtful  to  us.  Of  this,  our  own  experience,  as  well  as 
that  of  others,  is  a  constant  witness.  And  it  is  a  mistaken 
view  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  self-denial,  or  mortification  of 
the  body,  which  extends  it  to  things  innocent  in  themselves,  and 
possessing  no  tendency,  either  directly  or  by  consequence,  to 
injure  us  in  soul,  body,  or  estate.  But  though  this  is  undoubt- 
edly true,  yet  such  is  the  fatal  propensity  of  our  fleshly  minds 
to  run  to  excess  in  the  indulgence  of  appetite,  in  the  pursuit  of 
pleasure,  falsely  so  called,  that  it  is  safer  to  follow  St.  Paul's 
example  and  to  keep  the  body  under;  rather  to  abridge  our  grati- 
fications, yea,  to  deny  ourselves  in  things  lawful  and  permitted, 
than  to  risk  their  becoming  an  occasion  of  falling  in  ourselves 
or  a  stumbling  block  to  others.  J^o  man  liveth  unto  himself ;  so 
that  even  our  enjoyments  partake  of  the  character  of  duties,  and 
must  be  regulated  by  the  effect  they  are  calculated  to  produce, 
both  on  ourselves  and  others. 

Thirdly  :  we  hold  our  worldly  advantages,  indeed  our  spiri- 
tual ones  also,  in  trust  for  the  benefit  of  others.  Thou  shalt  love 
thy  neighbour  as  thyself,  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  second 
table,  as  it  is  called,  of  God's  law.  On  which  I  will  only  ob- 
serve, that  the  least  that  can  be  allowed  concerning  this  duty, 
is,  that  the  principle  be  as  strong  as  our  self-love.  A  hard  say- 
ing, my  brethren,  and  no  otherwise  to  be  fulfilled,  than  by  the 
succour  and  help  of  God's  Holy  Spirit  !  For  however  natu- 
ral it  may  be,  that  children  of  the  same  family  should  love  one 
another,  yet  so  strong  is  self,  that  with  men  it  is  impossible,  though 
not  with  God. 

In  this  trust  for  others  there  are  also  degrees. 

First,  our  own  families.  If  any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and 
specially  for  those  of  his  own  house,  (or  kindred,)  he  hath  denied 
the  faith  (perverted  the  gospel)  and  is  worse  than  an  infidel. 

Next,  for  our  Christian  brethren.    Jls  toe  have  opportunity,  let  us 


PARABLE  OP  THE  TALENTS.  449 

do  good  unto  (dlmen^  especially  unto  them  who  are  of  the  household 
of  faith. 

Thirdly,  for  the  poor  and  needy,  the  suffering  and  afflicted. 
Pure  religion — before  God  and  the  Father  is  this,  to  visit  the 
fatherless  and  widoics  in  their  affliction. 

This,  my  brethren,  is  to  give  our  Lord's  money  to  the  ex- 
changers, in  the  genuine  sense.  And  it  is  not  without  purpose 
and  connexion,  that  this  weighty  parable  immediately  precedes 
the  description  of  the  judgment  of  the  great  day.  /  loas  an 
hungered  and  ye  gave  me  no  meal ;  I  was  thirsty  and  ye  gave  me 
no  drink,  I  icas  naked  and  ye  clothed  me  not ;  sick,  and  in  prison, 
and  ye  visited  me  not.  Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  in  such  case, 
and  did  minister  to  thee  ?  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  to  one  of  the 
least  of  these,  ye  did  it  not  to  me.  O  what  a  beautiful  and  touch- 
ing representation  is  this,  my  brethren,  of  the  interest  our  Lord 
takes  in  his  people  !  What  an  affecting  application  of  his  last 
commandment,  that  we  should  love  one  another  even  as  he  loved  us! 
And  behold  how  wisely  he  hath  provided,  that  none  should  con- 
sider themselves  exempt  from  the  duty,  because  of  the  smallness 
of  their  means.  For,  says  he,  whosoever  shall  give  to  drink,  unto 
one  of  these  little  ones,  a  cup  of  cold  water  only  in  the  name  of  a 
disciple,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  shall  in  no  wise  lose  his  reward. 

in.  A  third  head  of  instruction  which  we  may  draw  from  the 
text  is,  the  necessity  of  consideration.  Lord,  thou  deliveredst 
unto  me  five  talents. 

Hence  we  learn,  that  the  person  to  whom  they  were  given 
made  his  own  individual  condition,  the  advantages  he  was  pos- 
sessed of,  the  subject  of  careful  consideration  ;  otherwise  he 
could  never  have  ascertained  what  he  was  entrusted  with  so  as 
to  make  the  required  use  of  them.  This,  my  brethren,  lies  at 
the  root  of  all  advancement  or  improvement  of  condition, 
whether  temporal  or  spiritual.  Experience  teaches  us  that, 
even  in  worldly  things,  there  can  be  no  success,  no  increase, 
no  improvement,  without  considering  carefully  what  our  means 
are  for  the  attainment  of  any  proposed  end  ;  and  then  applying 
them  steadily  and  diligently  to  that  end. 

Worldly  men  are  well  aware  of  the  advantage  of  singleness  of 
intention,    of    having  one  main   leading  object   in   view,  and 

Vol.  II. — 57 


450  PARABLE  OF  THE  TALENTS. 

directing  their  thoughts  and  efforts  chiefly  to  its  advancement, 
bending  every  circumstance  in  Ufe  to  the  one  purpose  which 
occupies  their  desire.  And  herein  the  ckildren  of  this  world  are 
in  their  generation  wiser  than  the  children  of  light,  for  rarely, 
indeed,  are  theij  disappointed,  who  thus  lay  themselves  out  for  a 
portion  in  time.  How  much  more  strongly,  then,  does  this 
apply  to  our  spiritual  concerns  !  How  much  more  deserving 
of  serious  consideration  and  diligent  engagement  are  our  ever- 
lasting interests  !  How  deeply  are  we  all  interested  to  ascertain 
what  is  entrusted  to  us,  when  it  is  so  expressly  set  before  us  that 
improvement,  and  nothing  but  improvement,  will  be  accepted 
at  our  hands..  Even  the  unprofitable  servant  appears  to  have 
considered  and  reasoned  on  his  particular  trust,  Lord,  I  knew 
that  thou  wert  a  hard  man.  He  was  aware  that  if  he  wasted 
and  abused  his  lord's  goods  he  would  be  punished.  To  guard, 
therefore,  against  that,  he  went  and  hid  his  talent  in  the  earth. 
When  called  to  account,  he  returned  what  was  committed  to 
him  safe  and  uninjured,  Lo,  there  thou  hast  that  is  thine.  But, 
alas  !  it  was  unimproved,  and  therefore  could   not  be  received. 

Oh  !  what  a  lesson,  my  hearers,  should  this  be  to  us  all.  If 
simple  neglect,  if  inadvertence  and  inconsideration  are  thus 
criminal,  and  consigned  to  outer  darkness,  to  loeeping  and  gnash- 
ing of  teelh,  what  must  be  the  unutterable  misery  of  those  who 
are  spendthrifts  alike  of  temporal  and  spiritual  treasure  %  Who 
to  carelessness,  neglect,  and  light  estimation  of  what  is  com- 
mitted to  them,  add  waste  and  abuse,  perversion  and  prostitu- 
tion of  God's  mercies — call  their  talents  their  own,  and  in  the 
face  of  wai-ning  and  example  lay  them  out  in  the  purchase  of 
eternal  death  ?  O  consider  this,  ye  that  forget  God,  while  it  is 
yet  in  your  power  to  redeem  the  time  by  repentance. 

IV.  The  fourth  and  last  point  I  shall  present  for  your  instruc- 
tion is,  the  fairness  and  equity  of  God's  method  of  dealing  with 
his  creatures.  He  requires  only  in  proportion  as  he  gives,  and 
he  rewards  according  to  the  improvement  made.  Unto  every 
one  that  hath  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  abundance ;  but 
from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he 
hath.  This  passage  of  Scripture,  as  it  is  the  moral  of  the  para- 
ble, can  be   explained  and  understood  no  otherwise  than  of 


PARABLE  OP  THE  TALENTS.  451 

the  improvement  which,  as  rational,  accountable  beings,  we  are 
bound,  both  by  duty  and  interest,  to  make  of  what  God  is  pleased 
to  bestow  upon  us  in  the  present  life ;  and  the  proceeding  is  so 
accordant  with  our  natural  notions  of  right,  that  we  act  upon  it, 
even  instinctively,  in  whatever  it  applies  to.  How  fair  and 
equitable,  then,  that  God  should  measure  out  to  us  by  the  same 
rule  !  Take  heed,  therefore,  for  wilh  lohat  measure  ye  mete,  it 
shall  be  measured  to  you  again. 

Some  of  us,  perhaps,  may  be  disposed  to  think  with  the 
unprofitable  servant  that  our  Loud  is  a  hard  man.  But  it  is  not 
so,  my  friends,  either  in  fact  or  yet  in  our  thoughts.  Almighty 
God  is  a  fair  and  bountiful  master  ;  yea,  our  God  is  merciful,  of 
which  every  soul  present  is  a  proof.  He  requires  nothing  of  us 
beyond  what  he  gives  us  ability  to  perform,  neither  is  it  true 
that  we  think  him  a  hard  master.  Hard  and  severe  masters  are 
generally  very  punctually  obeyed  and  diligently  served  ;  and  such 
would  be  the  effect  upon  us  were  it  our  real  sentiment.  But, 
on  the  contrary,  the  secret  thought  of  too  many  is,  that  he  is 
more  merciful  than  his  own  word  declares  him  to  be  ;  taking 
license  from  this  delusion  to  sin  openly  against  him ;  drawing 
from  the  death  and  sufferings  of  his  dear  Son,  not  a  proof  of 
God's  indescribable  hatred  of  sin,  but  an  argument  to  sin  more 
securely  ;  and  thus  making  Christ  the  minister  of  sin,  and  turn- 
ing the  grace  of  God  into  lasciviousness  by  laying  the  flattering 
unction  to  their  souls,  that  after  all  they  shall  escape  the  eternal 
punishment  of  God's  revealed  wrath.  But  let  such  think  this 
with  themselves  again,  that  if  simple  neglect — failure  to  improve, 
is  justly  sufficient  to  drive  those  who  thus  act,  from  his  presence 
for  ever — if  it  includes  a  forfeiture  of  the  reward  offered  by 
grace  to  faith  and  obedience  through  the  merits  of  Christ,  how 
much  more  shall  waste  and  abuse  of  his  mercies,  contempt  of 
his  word  and  commandment,  and  open  rebellion  against  his 
righteous  government,  draw  down  upon  them  the  full  tempest  of 
his  wrath  and  vengeance  1  Who,  then,  may  abide  the  day  of  his 
coming  ?  Lord  !  who  shall  dwell  in  thy  holy  hill  ?  He  that  hath 
clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart ;  he  that  icalketh  uprightly  and 
xoorketh  righteousness ;  he  that  by  the  improvement  of  his  talent 
hath  laid  up  in  store  a  good  foundation  against  the  time  to  come — 


453  PARABLE  OF  THE  TALENTS. 

who,  by  care  and  diligence,  hath  made  his  calling  and  election  sure, 
and  attained  to  that  holiness,  without  which  no  man  shall  see  the 
Lord. 

Thus,  my  brethren  and  friends,  may  we  draw  from  the  parable 
in  my  text  instruction  as  to  the  nature  of  our  present  life  ;  the 
bearing  it  has  upon  that  which  is  to  come ;  the  condition  on 
which  we  hold  the  varied  mercies  of  God's  bountiful  providence  ; 
the  account  we  have  to  render  of  them,  and  the  unspeakable 
consequences  which  await  the  use  we  shall  make  of  them.  One 
leading  thought  is  throughout  pressed  upon  our  attention,  and 
that  is,  improvement,  increase,  advancement — in  other  words, 
growth  in  grace.  Without  this  the  moral  of  the  parable  shows  us 
that  there  is  no  hope — no  good  hope,  no  assurance — none  what- 
ever. Lord,  thou  deliver edst  unto  me  Jive  talents,  behold,  I  have 
gained  besides  them  Jive  talents  more.  Well  done.  Lord,  thou 
deliveredst  unto  me  one  talent,  and  I  Jeared  thee  and  went  and  hid 
thy  talent  in  the  earth,  here  it  is.  Thou  loicked  and  slothful  ser- 
vant. And  I  notice  it  the  rather,  singly  and  by  itself,  that  it 
may  reach  your  attention  and  help  to  cut  up  by  the  roots  the 
delusion  under  which  so  many  labour,  that  if  they  do  no  harm,  as 
•it  is  called,  if  they  are  orderly  and  decent  in  outward  behaviour, 
refrain  from  the  more  gross  and  out-breaking  practice  of  sin 
and  wickedness,  from  the  vain  dissipations  of  a  thoughtless 
world,  and  are  in  fellowship  with  some  denomination  of  profess- 
ing Christians,  all  is  well — they  are  in  a  safe  way  of  salvation. 
But  what  says  my  text,  brethren  1  Where  is  the  increase  I  had 
a  right  to  expect  1  Where  is  the  good  it  was  in  the  power  of 
thine  hand  to  do  with  my  goods  1  Wherefore  didst  thou  not 
give  my  money  to  the  exchangers  ?  Take  the  unproductive 
servant  and  cast  him  into  outer  darkness !  Alas  !  my  brethren, 
let  us  be  no  longer  secure  because  we  are  free  from  the  rank- 
ness  of  that  sin  which  rules  in  the  children  of  disobedience. 
When  we  have  done  all,  we  are  taught  to  consider  ourselves  as 
unprofitable  servants ;  but  if  we  come  short  of  that  improve- 
ment, which  God  justly  requires  of  us,  we  shall  be,  not  only 
unprofitable,  but  unproductive,  withered,  unfruitful  branches, 
fit  for  nothing  but  to  be  cast  into  the  fire  and  burned.  Oh  !  let 
this  awakening  truth  do  away  the  fatal  propensity  of  our  fallen 


PARABLE  OF  THE  TALENTS.  453 

nature  to  curtail  the  duties  of  our  religious  state,  and  pare  down 
the  standard  of  the  gospel  to  our  own  unholy  measure  !  Let  it 
startle  us  to  consider  afresh  what  God  hath  committed  to  our 
trust,  and,  with  a  fixed  conviction  that  it  must  be  improved  at  the 
peril  of  our  souls,  let  it  strengthen  us  to  cut  off  the  right  hand, 
to  pluck  out  the  right  eye,  of  our  selfish  desires  and  unsanctified 
affections,  putting  our  trust  in  God  for  the  power  to  do  what  he 
requires  of  us  !  And  let  those  who  consume  their  time  and  lay 
out  their  means  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  and  amusement  in  the 
fashionable  folhes  and  giddy  unthinking  vanities  of  the  times — 
who  are  altogether  opposed  to  the  wise  restraints  and  salutary 
self-denials  of  the  gospel,  and  ask.  Where  is  the  harm  in  a  little 
innocent  mirth  and  recreation  1  as  they  term  the  round  of  folly  ; 
let  such  look  here  and  then  answer  their  own  question  !  Let 
them  then  say  whether  there  is  not  a  cause  why  the  ministers  of 
Christ  should  lift  up  their  voices  like  a  trumpet  to  show  them 
their  danger. 

Fruitful  as  this  particular  parable  is,  in  matter  for  reproof,  for 
correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness,  and  well  as  it  would 
repay  a  wider  and  longer  range  of  consideration,  I  must  leave 
the  further  improvement  of  it  in  this  way  to  your  own  sense  of 
its  importance.  What  I  have  said  upon  it  will,  I  trust,  be  help- 
ful to  your  private  meditations.  Remember  that  whatever  you 
have  or  are,  will  be  required  at  your  hands  with  increase  ;  that 
the  various  talents  of  reason  and  understanding,  of  condition  in 
life,  of  wealth  and  influence,  are  all  gifts,  improvable  to  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  men ;  that  your  children  and 
servants,  your  relations  and  neighbours,  are  not  only  in  them- 
selves talents  committed  specially  to  your  care,  but  instru- 
ments for  the  improvement  and  application  of  reason,  condition 
in  life,  wealth  and  influence,  to  the  spread  and  advancement,  the 
increase  and  establishment  of  religion  in  the  world.  Remember 
above  all,  that  the  precious  talent  of  the  gospel  is  yours  ;  the 
wisdom  that  cometh  down  from  above,  the  hope  that  maketh  not 
ashamed.  Let  each  one  of  you,  then,  as  a  partaker  of  the  mani- 
fold grace  of  God,  apply  this  parable  to  himself  And  herein 
will  be  your  true  wisdom,  my  friends,  for  it  will  most  surely  be 
apphed  to  you,  in  that  awful  judgment,  which  the  vanishing 


454  PARABLE  OF  THE  TALENTS. 

away  of  our  passing  days  brings  nearer  and  nearer  to  each  one 
of  us,  O  that  this  undoubted  fact  may  lead  us  all  to  think  more 
deeply  of  the  great  and  comprehensive  talent  of  time,  that  it 
neither  waits  nor  returns,  and  that  it  ends  in  eternity. 

Let  me  then  exhort  you,  by  the  worth  of  your  immortal  souls, 
by  the  goodness  of  God,  by  the  love  of  Christ,  by  all  the  mercies 
of  your  condition,  by  the  strict  account  you  must  give  of  them, 
by  the  shortness  and  uncertainty  of  life,  by  the  infinite  dispro- 
portion between  things  temporal  and  eternal,  yea,  by  the  waste 
already  committed  in  your,  trust  estate  ;  let  me  beseech  you  to 
lay  near  your  hearts  the  solemn  truths  now  presented  to  you. 
To  many  of  us,  my  brethren,  the  day  is  far  spent,  the  night  is  at 
hand,  the  judge  is  at  the  door.  O  let  these  things  speak  to  us 
of  preparing  to  meet  our  God  !  Let  us  honestly  examine  our 
state.  Of  what  possible  advantage  can  it  be  for  a  rational  creature 
to  deceive  himself  in  this  great  concern  1  What  can  compen- 
sate for  the  loss  of  our  souls  1  Let  them  speak  in  the  same 
warning  voice  to  those,  who  with  greener  years  fairly  look  for 
a  longer  trial.  The  young  have  their  talents  also  to  improve, 
and  their  account  to  give  in,  and  not  unfrequently  at  a  short 
notice.  Now  then,  is  the  time  to  turn  and  escape  for  your 
lives,  before  the  blinding,  hardening  influence  of  sin  and  folly 
have  made  escape  difficult,  if  not  impossible. 

Let  me  exhort  you  in  particular,  against  the  prevailing  delu- 
sion of  your  years — that  you  have  time  in  store,  that  your  Lord 
delayeth  his  coming.  The  parable,  indeed,  tells  us,  that  it  was 
after  a  long  time,  that  the  lord  of  those  servants  came  and 
reckoned  with  them.  But  it  tells  us  also,  that  he  did  come,  and 
called  for  their  accounts.  To  you  also  he  will  come,  my  younger 
hearers,  and  ye  knoio  neither  the  day  nor  the  hour.  Be  ye  there- 
fore cdso  ready,  your  loins  girt  about  and  your  lights  burning,  that 
ye  may  go  in  with  your  Lord  to  the  marriage  ;  for  He  that  shall 
come  will  come  and  will  not  tarry ;  and  behold,  his  reward  is  loith 
him,  to  give  to  every  one  according  as  his  work  shall  be.  What 
that  work  must  be,  to  receive  his  heart-cheering,  life-giving 
well  done,  is  set  before  us  in  the  most  familiar  and  convincing 
manner  in  my  text,  and  so  plainly  that  he  that  runs  may  read. 

Let  me  exhort  you,  then,  no  longer  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  that 


PARABLE    OE    THE    TALENTS.  455 

warning  word,  which  is  able  to  make  you  wise  unto  salvation, 
through  faith  ichich  is  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  and  let  what  you  have 
heard  teach  you,  that  the  religion  of  the  gosjDel  is  not  a  set  of 
abstract  notions  contained  in  the  head,  nor  yet  a  system  of 
doctrines  entertained  in  the  belief,  neither  does  it  consist  in  any 
outward  name  or  profession  among  Christians,  but  in  such  a 
hearty  reception  of  revealed  truth  as  leads  the  heart  to  God, 
and  draws  out  the  life  in  obedience  to  his  commandments ;  an 
active,  living  principle  of  accountable  duty.  As  such,  seek 
after  and  improve  this  and  all  your  talents. 

In  the  revolution  of  time,  there  is  much  of  warning  to  a  seri- 
ous mind.  In  the  close  of  one  year  and  commencement  of 
another,  there  is  much  for  meditation  to  work  profitably  upon. 
To  me  it  speaks  loudly  of  the  account  I  must  ere  long  give  in, 
not  only  for  myself  but  for  others  ;  for  you,  my  brethren  and 
hearers,  it  tells  me,  at  a  double  peril,  not  to  hide  my  Lord's 
talent  in  the  earth  ;  not  to  be  negligent  in  providing  that  ye  may 
have  these  things,  these  practical  things  of  religion,  faithfully 
pressed  upon  you.  It  speaks  to  me  of  greater  diligence  and 
more  earnestness  in  my  calling  ;  it  inquires  of  me.  How  many 
talents  hast  thou  added  to  thy  Lord's  stock  1  Alas  !  my  bre- 
thren, what  a  small  amount  in  the  whole  !  How  little  in  the  past 
year !  But  praised  be  God  that  there  is  any  !  And  though 
the  improvement  hitherto  made  in  this  portion  of  his  vineyard  is 
of  small  amount,  let  us  put  our  trust  in  God  for  better  times  ; 
let  us  hope  that  those  who  are  in  darkness  will  yet  awake  to 
the  light  of  his  marvellous  truth,  and  arise  and  shake  them- 
selves from  the  dust ;  that  Zion  will,  even  here,  yet  put  on  her 
beautiful  garments,  and  be  a  praise  among  men. 

My  brethren  and  hearers,  may  that  merciful  God  who  hath 
called  us  to  the  knowledge  of  his  grace — that  compassionate 
Saviour,  who  hath  paid  our  ransom  with  his  own  blood — that 
enlightening,  sanctifying  Spirit  whom  he  hath  sent  into  the 
world  to  abide  with  his  Church,  guide,  govern,  and  keep  us,  to 
the  glory  of  his  name  on  earth,  and  to  the  blessedness  of  his 
presence  in  heaven.     AxMen. 


SERMON  XL. 


PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 


Luke  viii.   15. 

"  But  that  on  the  good  groxind   are  they,  who  in  an  honest  and  good  heart,  having 
heard  the  word,  keep  it,  and  bring  forth  fruit  with  patience." 

The  parable  of  the  sower,  my  brethren,  is  exceedingly  in- 
structive, awakening,  and  profitable  ;  inasmuch  as  it  affords  to 
every  man  the  certain  means  of  ascertaining  what  effect  God's 
message  of  mercy  to  the  world  by  his  Son  has  had  upon  him- 
self, and  also  to  what  cause  its  want  of  effect,  should  that  be  the 
case,  is  to  be  ascribed  ;  whether  to  careless,  way-side  hearing, 
to  superficial  consideration  when  heard  and  received,  or  to  ab- 
sorption in  the  cares  and  pleasures  of  the  world.  In  presenting 
us,  moreover,  with  a  single  test  of  religious  condition,  it  sim- 
plifies the  duty  of  self  examination,  and  enables  every  individual, 
by  attending  to  his  growth  in  grace,  to  form  a  just  estimate  of 
his  interest  in  the  Christian  salvation.  This  test  is  contained  in 
the  words  of  my  text,  and  lays  down  this  sure  position,  that  im- 
provement of  Christian  advantages  is  the  only  safe  criterion  of 
Christian  hope,  the  only  ground  of  a  just  and  reasonable  assur- 
ance in  the  momentous  concerns  of  immortality.  In  this  it 
runs  parallel  vs^ith  the  parable  of  the  talents,  and,  in  the  union 
of  their  joint  moral,  establishes  the  practical  doctrine,  that  the 
religion  of  the  gospel  is  the  active  discharge  of  our  duties  to 
God  and  each  other,  from  proper  motives  and  with  reasonable 
expectations. 

It  presents  us,  therefore,  with  a  subject  of  profitable  improve- 
ment, in  considering, 

First,  the  influence  of  natural  disposition  on  the  reception 
of  divine  truth. 

Secondly,  how  far  external  conduct  is  to  be  relied  upon  as 
a  proof  of  religion. 


PARABLE  OF  THK  SOWKR.  457 

Thirdly,  what  constitutes  the  sure  test,  upon  whicliwc  may 
safely  depend. 

But  that  on  the  good  ground  are  they,  loho  in  an  honest  and 
good  heart  having  heard  the  icord,  keep  it,  and  bring  forth  fruit 
ivith  patience. 

I.  First,  I  am  to  consider  the  influence  of  natural  disposition  on 
the  reception  of  divine  truth. 

That  this  will  be  in  opposition,  may  be  asserted  without  any 
fear  of  contradiction  ;  individual  experience  being  the  living 
witness  of  the  fact.  But  of  what  character  that  opposition 
will  be,  whether  of  mere  indifference,  of  careless  neglect,  of 
contrary  pursuit,  or  of  actual  hostility,  will  depend  on  original 
difference  of  temperament,  modified  by  the  adventitious  circum- 
stances of  early  education  and  worldly  occupation. 

It  is,  indeed,  of  little  consequence,  as  to  the  event,  to  what 
cause  opposition  to  divine  truth  may  be  ascribed,  provided  it 
continues ;  but  it  is  of  great  consequence  to  know,  that  some 
natural  tempers,  as  well  as  some  worldly  pursuits  and  occupa- 
tions, are  more  or  less  indisposed  to  those  motives  and  arguments, 
which  are  calculated  to  counteract  this  tendency,  and  by  the 
aid  of  divine  grace  to  overcome  it ;  because  upon  this  must 
depend,  both  the  exertion  to  be  put  forth  by  the  individual,  and 
the  application  of  the  necessary  means  by  others. 

While,  however,  we  thus  state,  without  any  qualification,  the 
averseness  and  opposition  of  our  fallen  and  perverted  natures 
to  the  things  of  God  and  religion,  we  do  not  mean  to  say,  that 
it  is  an  aversion  and  opposition  which  cannot  be  overcome,  or 
which  presents  any  extenuation  of  guilt.  On  the  contrary,  we 
present  it  to  you,  and  press  it  upon  you,  to  awaken  and  alarm 
you  and  to  induce  you  to  resort  to  those  means,  by  which  only 
this  mortal  malady  can  be  arrested  and  cured.  For  there  is 
provision  made  in  the  gospel  of  Christ  against  all  the  variety  of 
this  original  taint  and  corruption  of  our  nature,  and — let  us  hear 
it  with  the  deepest  impression — it  is  no  where  else  to  be  found. 

Hence  Ave  are  able  to  account  for  that  difference,  both  in 
kind  and  degree,  of  opposition  to  divine  truth,  which  is  observ- 
able among  men.  The  natural  man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  ;  he  is  simply  indisposed  to  consider  and  entertain 

Vol.  II.— 5S 


458  PARABLE     OF     THE     SOWER. 

them.  The  sensual  man  not  only  receives  them  not,  but  lluy 
are  foolishness  unto  him  comj)ared  with  present  delights.  The 
worldly  man  cannot  receive  them,  his  heait  is  gone  alter  its 
covetousness,  the  idol  fills  the  temple,  and  there  is  no  room  for 
them.  While  the  actual  unbeliever,  not  only  does  not  receive 
them,  but  rejects  them  with  loathing,  and,  at  the  same  time,  with 
a  strange  mixture  of  fear  and  dread. 

Whence,  then,  cometh  the  honest  and  good  heart,  which  both 
receives,  and  retains,  and  improves  divine  truth  1  My  answer 
is,  that  it  is  the  fruit  of  sound  instruction,  wise  restraint,  serious 
consideration,  earnest  prayer,  and  diligent  endeavour,  made 
effectual  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  this  happy  end.  So  far, 
then,  it  is  put  within  the  reach  of  every  one  of  us,  and  we  are 
without  excuse,  if  we  have  not  attained  it,  or  are  not  seriously 
striving  for  it. 

Hence  we  learn  how  the  neglect  of  these  essential  duties  ope- 
rates to  increase  this  corruption  of  our  nature,  even  to  the 
hatred  of  God  and  religion — in  other  words,  how  we  become 
hardened  through  the  deceitfulness  of  sin.  And  hence  opens  upon 
us  the  wide  and  binding  obligation  of  parental  duty,  in  the  nur- 
ture and  admonition  of  families.  With  parents  it  rests,  to  give 
to  the  natural  disposition,  while  tender  and  pliant,  a  direction 
towards  God;  to  train  it  heaven-ward  ;  to  cultivate  and  prune 
it,  that  it  may  bear  good  fruit ;  to  apply  the  counteracting  influ- 
ence of  early  instruction,  watchful  restraint,  and  good  example. 
These  God  enjoins,  and  has  promised  to  bless,  and  without 
these  the  hope  is  wild  and  unwarranted,  that  there  will  be  any 
fear  of  God,  or  confoirnity  to  his  holy  will. 

It  may,  indeed,  be  otherwise  in  the  sovereignty  of  divine  grace, 
but  this  cannot  be  counted  upon  ;  and  where  it  does  take  plj^ee, 
it  releases  not  from  guilt  those  who  have  neglected  the  more 
ordinary,  rational,  and  scriptural  means,  in  the  right  use  of  which 
the  end  would  have  been  more  surely  attained. 

O  Christian  parents  !  yes,  and  parents  who  are  not  Chris- 
tians ;  what  a  weight  is  upon  you,  from  which  you  cannot 
escape  !  What  an  obligation,  for  which  you  must  answer  with 
your  souls  !  and  what  precious  promises  and  blessed  hopes  are 
yours,  if  you  fulhl  your  duty  !     Have  you  ever  realized  them  ? 


PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER.  459 

Have  you  ever  thought  of  them  beyond  the  little  mhiute  1  was 
pressing'  them  upon  you  1  O  that  I  could  engrave  them  upon 
your  hearts  !  O  that  God  would  give  me  wherewithal  to  move 
you — a  tongue  of  fire,  or  a  lip  of  persuation  !  For  it  is  not  a 
rain  thing  for  you,  but  it  is  your  life.  And  wo  to  that  pestilent 
doctraie,  which,  in  its  perhaps  unintended  but  necessary  effect, 
hath  paralyzed  this  duty,  and  spread  the  double  murder  of  grow- 
ing infidelity  over  the  land  !  Alas  !  when  I  look  around  me,  and 
see  so  many  young  persons,  for  whose  worldly  condition  every 
pains  hath  been  taken,  but  who  manifest  no  concern  for  their 
souls,  what  am  I  to  think  1  That  their  parents  have  been  faith- 
ful in  this  duty  1  Alas  !  no.  For  then  God  must  be  unright- 
eous to  forget  his  promise  to  this  work  and  labour  of  love.  O  let 
us  humble  ourselves  before  him,  and  confess  our  sin,  and  im- 
plore his  grace  to  counteract  our  past  neglect,  and  form  in  these 
young  persons  the  honest  and  good  heart,  which  shall  receive 
the  truth  in  the  love  of  it,  and  to  bless  our  earnest  endeavours 
to  amend  this  great  defect,  for  the  time  to  come.  Thus  shall 
repentance  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for  it,  and  a  visitation  of 
mercy  add  to  the  Church  such  as  shall  be  saved, 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  consider  how  far  external  conduct  is  to 
be  relied  upon  as  a  proof  of  religion. 

That  the  inward  or  governing  principle  of  the  mind  will,  in 
some  shape  or  another,  be  manifested  by  the  outward  behaviour 
of  the  man,  is  just  as  certain,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  as  that 
the  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit.  Where  we  see  a  continued 
course  of  thoughtlessness,  and  levity,  and  sin,  and  folly  in  the 
behaviour  of  any  individual,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  determining 
that  there  is  nothing  of  the  religious  principle  in  the  heart :  the 
tree  is  not  made  good.  But  it  will  not,  therefore,  follow — as  at 
first  sight  it  would  appear  to  do — that  external  conduct  is  what 
we  are  alone  or  chiefly  to  look  to  as  the  proof  of  the  religious 
principle  being  formed  and  active  in  our  hearts.  From  the 
nature  of  things,  the  root  is  before  the  branches :  principle, 
therefore,  must  precede  practice.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  how- 
ever, that  every  man,  whatever  his  condition  may  be,  can  give 
the  negative  proof  that  the  religious  principle  is  formed  in  his 
heart,  by  abstaining  from  sin.     But  it  may  not  be  equally  in  his 


4G0  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

power  to  give  the  positive  proof  of  it  by  actions  directly  good. 
These  must  depend  upon  ability  and  opportunity — neither  of 
which  may  be  present,  though  the  principle  from  which  good 
works  flow  may  be  enjoyed.  And  this  necessarily  follows  from 
the  great  variety  of  circumstances  in  which  men  are  placed, 
and  to  which  their  outward  behaviour  is  subjected.  Outward 
conduct,  therefore,  though  good  evidence  of  the  want  of  the 
religious  principle,  is  not  always  to  be  relied  upon  as  the  only 
safe  and  just  evidence  for  it. 

This  will  be  confirmed  by  a  case  which  is  too  common,  and 
in  which  outward  conduct  is  no  measure  of  religious  principle  ; 
and  that  is,  when  the  conduct  springs  from  motives  and  reasons 
which  have  no  reference  to  religion  at  all. 

A  very  bad  man  may  be  externally  forward  in  what  are  called 
good  works  ;  many  notorious,  outbreaking  sinners  are  yet 
humane  in  temper,  and  liberal  to  the  poor.  A  man  completely 
irreligious  at  heart,  and  owning  himself  such,  may,  for  the  sake 
of  character  and  respect  in  the  world,  for  the  sake  of  advantage 
or  from  the  fear  of  loss  from  constitutional  temperament,  and 
from  a  multitude  of  considerations  separate  from  any  religious 
impression,  be  both  forward  and  liberal  in  doing  good,  and  cau- 
tious of  giving  offence  by  doing  evil.  Yea,  how  many  amiable 
and  excellent  persons  do  we  all  know,  who,  in  their  outward 
deportment,  are  a  reproach  to  professing  Christians,  yet  have  no 
more  to  do  with  religion,  no  more  intimacy  with  its  exercises 
and  ordinances,  than  the  seats  they  sit  upon. 

In  examining  ourselves,  therefore,  with  a  view  of  knowing 
the  real  condition  of  our  souls — the  truth  of  our  spiritual  condi- 
tion in  the  sight  of  God,  and  in  respect  of  salvation,  it  is  neither 
enough,  nor  is  it  safe,  to  take  into  the  account  only  our  external 
conduct.  What  comports  with  religious  duty  may  in  good  part 
be  found  there,  and  after  all  prove  a  most  miserable  deception. 
Yet  we  know  by  experience,  that  it  is  the  delusion  under  which 
thousands  are  posting  hoodwinked  to  eternity.  They  do  no 
harm,  they  do  all  the  good  they  can,  they  see  no  great  difference 
between  their  walk  in  life  and  that  of  Christians,  and  they  hope 
to  be  saved  oven  as  others.  But  they  never  inquire  into  the 
principle  on  which  that  hope  rests.    They  search  not  the  Scrip- 


PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER.  461 

tures  for  the  conditions  on  which  salvation  is  limited  to  man. 
They  strive  not  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate.  There  is  no 
conflict  even  with  worldly  interest.  What  they  do,  they  do  to  be 
seen  of  men  ;  and  they  have  their  reward  in  the  complacencj- 
and  self-satisfaction  of  their  own  hearts,  and  in  the  praise  of 
men.  But,  my  brethren,  this  is  not  the  master  key  which  opens 
the  gate  of  eternal  life  to  a  sinner.  This  is  not  that  which  ren- 
ders even  good  works  acceptable  to  God.  There  is  a  better 
way  to  determine  this  mighty  interest  which  I  now  show  unto 
you,  by  considering,  as  was  proposed, 

III.  Thirdly,  what  constitutes  the  sure  test  upon  which  we 
may  safely  depend. 

Now  this  consists  under  every  variety  of  disposition  and  con- 
dition, in  THE  UNION  OF  A  RIGHT  MOTIVE  WITH  A  GOOD  ACTION. 

Where  these  meet,  the  fruit  is  perfect.  Where  they  are  separated, 
the  best  action,  the  greatest  good  that  ever  was  done,  has  no 
moral  or  rewardable  quality  in  the  sight  of  God.  As  the  motive  or 
principle,  therefore,  alone  sanctifies  the  action,  and  that  can 
only  be  seated  in  the  heart,  to  our  hearts  we  must  look  in  the 
first  and  chief  place  for  the  marks  and  tokens  of  religion,  for 
the  evidence  that  we  are  in  the  right  way.  That  on  the  good 
ground  are  they  icho,  in  an  honest  and  good  heart,  bring  forth  fruit 
with  patience. 

If,  therefore,  we  are  not  conscious  of  that  change  of  heart 
which  gives  a  new  direction  to  all  our  thoughts  and  to  all  our 
actions — that  secret  of  the  Lord,  that  hidden  man  of  the  heart,  that 
birth  from  above,  as  the  inspired  writers  term  it — the  most  splen- 
did series  of  good  actions  that  can  be  performed,  can  have  no 
religious  quality  :  If  I  give  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  even 
my  body  to  be  burned,  and  have  not  charity,  itprofiteth  me  nothino-. 
Hence  we  may  learn,  my  brethren,  how  it  is  that  actions  which 
to  our  view  are  exactly  alike,  may,  nevertheless,  both  in  them- 
selves and  in  the  sight  of  God,  be  altogether  opposite  ;  how  the 
widow's  mite,  and  the  ostentatious  offering  of  the  wealthy  Phari- 
see, were  infinitely  removed  from  each  other  in  His  estimation 
whose  judgment  is  ever  according  to  truth. 

And  hence  also  we  may  learn  what  is  the  sure  test  to  which 
to  bring  our  spiritual  state  ;  that  if  we  would  enjoy  the  comfort 


462  PARABLE     OF    THE    SOWER. 

and  assurance  of  the  gospel,  we  must  not  only  be  rich  in  good, 
works,  but  rich  also  in  that  spiritual  root  from  which  alone  all 
holy  desires,  all  good  counsels,  and  all  just  works  do  proceed. 

It  is  faith  working  by  love,  my  brethren,  that  adorns  the  doc- 
trine of  God  our  Saviour  here  upon  earth  ;  but  it  is  love  mighty 
through  faith,  to  regain  a  heavenly  inheritance,  that  sits  down 
for  ever  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Let  us  not  attempt  to  sepa- 
rate, then,  what  God  hath  joined,  but,  in  their  holy  union,  prove 
ivhat  is  that  perfect  and  acceptable  toill  of  God,  m  tvJiick  he  hath 
chosen  us  to  salvation  through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and 
belief  of  the  truth. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  apply  what  has  been  said  by  some 
practical  inferences  from  the  subject. 

Keep  thy  heart  with  all  cUligence,  saith  the  wise  man,  for  out  of 
it  are  the  issues  of  life.  Out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts, 
murders,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  false  xaitness,  blasphemies, 
saith  the  Saviour,  and  these  are  the  things  which  defile  a  man.  If 
our  heart  condemn  us,  saith  the  apostle,  God  is  greater  than  our 
heart  and  knoweth  all  things.  Beloved,  if  our  heart  condemn  tcs 
not,  then  have  ive  confidence  towards  God. 

Connected  with  my  text  and  with  what  hath  been  said,  these 
passages  of  Scripture  may  serve  to  impress  us  with  the  duty  of 
looking  carefully  to  the  seat  of  all  religion — the  heart.  My 
brethren  and  hearers,  religion,  the  saving  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ,  is  a  vital  principle  ;  and  whatever  of  scoff  and  mockery 
may  be  cast  upon  it,  it  is  only  in  this  character  that  it  is  worth 
seeking  or  worth  having.  The  state  of  our  hearts,  then,  on  the 
subject  of  religion,  must  be  of  great  importance,  as  it  must  also 
be  to  have  some  marks  by  which  to  determine  whether  at  all, 
and  to  what  extent,  it  has  any  influence  upon  us. 

Now  one  of  these  marks,  and  that  a  very  conclusive  one,  is 
seriousness  ;  seriousness  of  the  heart,  not  occasionally  excited, 
but  abiding.  The  man  or  the  woman,  who  does  not  find  him 
or  herself  serious  on  the  subject  of  religion,  can  draw  but  one 
conclusion,  and  that  is,  that  as  yet  they  have  neither  part  nor  lot 
in  the  matter.  If  the  judgment  of  Almighty  God  at  the  last 
day,  which  we  must  all  meet — if  the  difference  between  being 
saved  and  being  lost,  being  accepted  in  the  beloved  or  cast  ofT 


I'ARAIJLE    OF    THE     SOAVER.  -163 

into  hell,  where  the  vvoi-m  dieth  not,  and  the  hrc  is  not  (lucnch- 
ed — if  these  things  will  not  make  us  serious,  then  it  is  most 
certain,  either  that  we  do  not  believe  there  are  any  such  conse- 
quences, or  that^we  have  not  yet  thought  of  them  at  all,  or  that 
we  have  forcibly  dismissed  them  from  our  minds,  or  that  we  are 
so  imbued  with  levity  of  character  that  even  eternity  can  make 
no  impression  upon  us.  In  any  of  these  cases  our  condition  is 
next  to  desperate  ;  we  can  have  no  hope  hereafter  from  any 
thing  that  Christianity  has  to  offer  us. 

If  our  want  of  seriousness  concerning  religion  is  occasioned 
by  our  not  believing  it,  there  can  be  no  hope  of  salvation  from 
a  religion  which  we  reject.  Indeed,  the  mind  cannot  be  affect- 
ed by  what  it  does  not  realize  ;  and  if  the  mind  is  untouched  by 
the  realities  of  a  future  state,  the  conduct  will  be  so  likewise. 

If  it  be  the  case  with  us,  as  alas  !  it  is  with  thousands,  that 
we  have  not  yet  thought  of  these  things,  and  hence  are  not 
serious  about  them,  certainly  it  is  high  time  Avith  every  one  who 
hears  me,  to  take  the  subject  home  to  his  deepest  consideration. 
The  great  events  of  death  and  judgment,  of  heaven  and  hell,  are 
not  at  a  distance  from  us.  As  we  draw  near  the  close  of  our 
days,  they  come  nearer  to  every  one  of  us,  and  are  precisely  the 
same  as  if  the  day  of  our  death  was  the  day  of  judgment.  There- 
fore, it  is  folly  in  the  extreme  in  any  rational  being  to  say  he  has 
not  thought  of  religion.  It  is  an  answer  we  sometimes  receive  ; 
but  it  is  a  foolish  one,  indeed  it  is  worse  than  foolish,  it  is 
highly  presumptuous.  And  yet  do  I  not  look  on  many  who 
would  have  to  give  this  answer  or  none  at  all  1  Who  have  never 
sat  down  to  count  the  cost  at  which  their  immortal  souls  are 
staked  in  an  appvibaching  eternity,  nor  have  given  to  the  revela- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucifjcd,  that  serious  considera- 
tion to  which,  as  the  only  name  under  heaven  given  among  men 
for  salvation,  it  is  entitled  !  Alas  !  my  careless  hearers,  can 
religion  do  3'ou  any  good  while  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  occasional 
speculation,  desired  perhaps,  but  never  sought,  never  found  1 
1  may  sow  the  word,  but  of  what  advantage  can  it  be  to  the 
thoughtless  way  side  hearer,  v/ho  allows  the  wicked  one  to  catch 
it  away  almost  as  it  is  sown  ?  With  what  profit  will  it  fall  on 
the  shallow  ground  of  that  heart  to  which  seriousness  is  a  stran- 


164  PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 

ger  1  Alas !  should  it  even  spring  up,  how  soon  is  it  blasted  and 
withered  in  the  ungenial  climate  of  the  vanities  and  follies  of  the 
world  !  and  how  surely  is  it  choked  and  rendered  unfruitful  in 
those  whose  seriousness  is  absorbed  in  the  cares  of  this  hfe  ! 
whose  hearts  bow  down  before  the  god  of  this  world  !  Oh  !  if  it 
should  please  God  to  command  the  pestilence  upon  us,  or  infect 
our  atmosphere  with  death,  what  thousands  would  be  turned 
over  to  the  forlorn  hope  of  a  death-bed  repentance,  because 
reli""ious  seriousness  is  banished  from  their  hearts  !  And  is  this 
impossible  1  Has  it  never  happened  ]  Ask  yourselves,  then, 
seriously,  my  hearers,  can  youth,  or  health,  or  business,  or 
pleasure  be  any  excuse  for  not  thinking  about  religion  1  Is  it 
of  importance  only  to  the  old,  and  infirm,  and  dying,  to  be 
saved  1  Do  the  young,  and  the  strong,  and  the  busy,  and  the 
dissipated  never  die  1  Can  they  be  saved  without  religion  1  or 
can  religion  save  them  without  thinking  about  it  1  No  !  Those 
who  are  saved,  not  only  receive  the  word  into  an  honest  and 
good  heart,  but  keep  it  there.  They  are  not  only  hearers,  but 
doers  of  the  word.  The  man  who  brings  forth  fruit  with  patience, 
delights  in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  and  meditates  therein  day  and 
nisht,  and  is  compared  to  a  tree  planted  by  the  rivers  of  water, 
which  bringeth  forth  fruit  in  his  season. 

Lastly,  if  want  of  seriousness  on  the  subject  of  religion  pro- 
ceed from  such  a  levity  of  mind  as  nothing  can  make  any  im- 
pression upon,  the  condition  is  most  dangerous.  For  this  levity 
must  be  cured  before  any  religious  impression  can  be  enter- 
tained, and  the  cure  is  in  the  hand  of  God  only— in  the  applica- 
tion of  those  severe  afflictions,  which  bring  the  mind  to  its 
balance.  Then  will  the  solemn  considerations  which  were  be- 
fore made  light  of  and  jested  at,  find  room  to  be  entertained, 
and  estimated  according  to  their  actual  worth  ;  and  thus  is  the 
visitation  of  personal  suftering  very  often  the  greatest  kindness, 
because  the  only  means  of  begetting  seriousness  on  the  subject 
of  reli,«i-ion.  Numbers  ascribe  their  first  serious  impressions  to 
the  loss  of  some  dear  object,  or  to  some  severe  bodily  suffering ; 
and  as  all  serious  persons  find  that  disposition  increased  by 
every  fresh  atfliction,  this  should  teach  us  how  necessary  such 
visitations  are  to  us,  and  how  experimentally  David  spoke,  when 


PARABLE    OF    THE    SOWER. 


465 


he  said,  It  is  good  for  me,  that  I  have  been  ajjlktcd.  I  know,  O 
Lord,  that  thou,  in  very  faithfidness,  hast  q^licted  me. 

In  saying,  however,  that  the  remedy  for  this  most  dangerous 
state  of  mind  is  in  the  hand  of  God  only,  we  do  not  mean  to 
say,  that  nothing  can  be  done,  either  by  the  persons  themselves 
or  by  others,  in  aid  of  this  most  necessary  work — for  much  may 
be  done  ;  and  this  poor  world,  amid  all  its  witcheries,  is  full  of 
proofs,  from  daily  calamity  and  supervening  death,  that  it  is  not 
worth  depending  on  for  present  pleasure,  and  that  the  sum  of  its 
gratifications,  for  the  period  of  its  endurance,  would  be  dear 
bought,  at  the  expense  of  the  soul. 

Let  us,  then,  my  brethren,  treasure  up  the  instruction  this 
parable  presents  us  with.  Weekly  the  sower  goes  forth  to  sow. 
Let  us  examine  carefully  into  what  kind  of  ground,  with  what 
disposition  of  heart,  we  receive  the  good  seed  of  the  kingdom. 
Let  us  bring  that  to  bear  upon  the  fruit  it  produces  in  our  out- 
ward conduct,  and,  by  their  mutual  relation  to  each  other,  be 
certified  both  of  the  motive  from  which  we  act  and  the  end  to 
which  we  are  progressing.  Let  us  do  this  with  the  seriousness 
which  eternity  demands.  So  shall  we  daily  ripen  for  the  king- 
dom which  cannot  be  moved,  and,  in  the  harvest  of  the  world, 
when  the  tares  shall  be  separated  from  the  wheat,  be  gathered 
by  the  reapers  into  the  garner  of  the  Son  of  God. 


Vol.  n.-.59 


SERMON  XLI. 


FRUIT    ACCORUING    TO    SEED    SOWN. 


Galatians  vi.  7- 

"  Be  not  deceived  ;  God  is  Jiot  mocked  :  for  whatsoever  a  man  boweth,  that  shall  be 

also  reap." 


The  influence  of  the  present  life  upon  tliat  wliich  is  to  come, 
is  here  set  forth  under  a  similitude  which  is  at  once  iamiliar 
and  striking  ;  and,  as  no  one  can  possibly  mistake  the  applica- 
tion, all  are  interested  to  consider  its  bearing  upon  their  indivi- 
dual condition.  We  are  all  busy  and  attentive,  in  various 
manners  and  degrees,  in  cultivating  the  material  seed  we  have 
committed  to  the  earth,  and  in  pursuing  our  different  worldly 
occupations.  We  have  sowed  in  hope,  and  put  forth  our  vari- 
ous exertions  in  confidence,  that  neither  seed  time  nor  harvest, 
nor  the  fruit  of  skill,  and  care,  and  diligence,  shall  be  disap- 
pointed ;  and  in  all  this  we  have  done  what  is  right,  and  what 
is,  in  truth,  our  bounden  duty.  We  have  none  of  us,  however, 
expected  to  gather  cotton  from  peas  or  corn  from  cotton,  nor 
yet  that  the  event  in  any  worldly  calling  should  be  opposite  to 
the  means  made  use  of  to  attain  it.  Now  I  would  ask,  why 
have  we  thus  acted  and  expected  1  Upon  what  ground  have  we 
thus  put  forth  our  labour  and  skill  in  our  various  occupations 't 
And  whence  is  it,  that  no  man  hath  even  looked  for  an  altera- 
tion in  the  kind  of  his  crop,  or  a  result  opposite  to  just  expec- 
tation in  the  other  pursuits  of  life '?  And  let  the  only  just  an- 
swer that  can  be  given — habitual  dependance  on  the  lixed  order 
of  an  unchangeable  Providence,  in  the  government  of  Almighty 
God — open  up  to  us  the  analogy  of  my  text,  and  impress  our 
hearts  with  its  importance  and  equity.  For  while  we  are  plough- 
ing and  sowing,  and  labouring  and  striving  for  time,  we  are  hke- 
wise  putting  in  a  crop  for  eternity;  and  just  such  as  we  sow^ 


FRUIT    ACCORDING    TO    SEED    SOWN.  4G7 

that  shall  we  also  reap.  Onthis  day,  then,  when  worldly  cares  and 
occupations  are  interdicted — v/hen  the  bustle  and  turmoil  of 
the  world  is  hushed  by  the  command  of  God — let  us  endeavour 
to  reap  the  fruit  which  a  careful  consideration  of  this  subject 
will  surely  present  to  us. 

Se  not  deceived ;  God  is  not  mocked :  for  whatsoever  a  man 
soiveth,  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

The  doctrine  contained  in  the  text  is  the  fundamental  doctrine 
of  all  religion,  the  link  which  connects  time  and  eternity,  and 
a  state  of  reward  or  punishment  with  the  quality  of  moral  con- 
duct. That  every  man  shall  finally  receive  of  God  according 
to  what  he  has  done  in  the  present  life,  is  a  truth  of  the  same 
certainty  and  of  the  same  importance  with  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  very  being  of  God  as  the  Moral  Governor  of  the 
universe  ;  and  only  as  this  is  the  fixed  and  full  persuasion  of  our 
minds,  will  the  claims  and  duties  of  religion  be  respected.  Hence 
the  frequency  with  which  the  doctrine  is  repeated  in  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  the  earnestness  with  which  it  is  pressed  upon  our  belief ; 
the  various  similitudes  whereby  its  connexion  with  our  present 
conduct  is  illustrated,  and  the  solemnity  of  that  judgment  which 
shall  precede  it  is  represented. 

As  Jesus  Christ  came  to  reveal  fully  the  will  of  God  for 
our  guidance — to  furnish  us  amply  for  that  life  and  immortality 
which  is  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel,  so  did  he  continually 
confirm  all  the  obligations  of  his  religion,  in  the  ap])lication  of 
this  equitable  rule  of  judgment  to  our  actions — The  Son  of  man 
shall  come  in  the  glory  of  his  Father^  with  the  angels,  and  then 
he  shall  reward  every  man  acccordln^  to  his  works.  Behold,  I 
come  quickly,  and  my  reward  is  with  me,  to  give  to  every  man  ac- 
cording as  his  work  shall  be.  And  what  our  Lord  himself  thus 
clearly  taught,  was  no  ^ss  plainly  and  earnestly  inculcated  by 
his  apostles.  We  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things  done  in  the  body, 
according  to  that  he  hath  done,  whether  it  he  good  or  bad. 

To  imagine,  therefore,  that  any  other  rule  will  decide  our 
everlasting  destiny,  is  not  only  to  run  counter  to  the  express 
declarations  of  the  Judge  himself,  but  to  affront  the  equity  of 
our  own  minds,  and  to  render  practical,  personal  religion  unim- 


468  FRUIT    ACCORDING    TO    SEED    SOWN. 

portant,  if  not  impossible.  As  on  this  point,  however,  men  are 
much  disposed  to  evade  the  plainest  declarations  of  Scripture, 
and  to  resort  to  some  shorter  and  easier  method  of  salvation 
than  the  practice  of  moral  righteousness,  the  apostle  inserts  a 
caution  against  all  such  self-deception — Be  not  deceived,  says 
he ;  God  is  not  mocked.  The  great  purpose  of  the  religion  of  the 
gospel  being  the  active  love  of  God,  in  the  attainment,  in  our 
measure  and  degree,  of  his  moral  perfections ;  and  the  active 
love  of  our  neighbour,  in  the  exercise  of  benevolence  and 
brotherly  kindness ;  to  expect  the  favour  of  the  God  of  love 
upon  any  other  conditions,  is  equally  fruitless  and  absurd^as 
contrary  to  reason  as  to  expect  to  reap  what  we  have  not  sowed. 
And  it  is  not  only  thus  fruitless  and  absurb,  but  an  affront  also 
to  the  perfections  of  the  Almighty,  in  thinking  to  impose  upon 
him  chaff  instead  of  wheat — the  useless  pretence  of  some  ab- 
stract quality  of  the  mind,  instead  of  the  real  qualifications  of  a 
holy  and  actively  benevolent  life.  Among  such  false  depend- 
ances  for  the  divine  favour  may  be  reckoned  as  the  chief,  faith, 
without  its  fruits;  trust  in  the  mercy  of  God,  without  perform- 
ance of  the  conditions  on  which  it  is  promised  ;  reliance  on  the 
merits  of  Christ,  without  departing  from  all  iniquity  ;  and  good 
intentions  put  off  till  to-morrow.  These  most  frequent  delu- 
sions, as  they  produce  no  fruit  corresponding  with  their  exter- 
nal denomination,  can  only  be  classed  according  to  their  real 
character,  by  a  wise  and  righteous  Judge  ;  and  as  his  fan  is  in 
his  hand,  and  he  will  thoroughly  purge  his  floor,  they  will  fly 
before  the  blast,  like  the  chaff  which  the  loind  scattereth  abroad, 
over  the  face  of  the  earth.  To  rely  upon  such  vain  expectations, 
then,  is  the  fatal  deception  of  thhiking  to  deceive  God  with  names 
instead  of  things  ;  the  miserable  delusion  of  thinking  that  the 
supreme  Moral  Governor  of  the  universe  has  less  regard  to  the 
real  fruits  of  religion  and  virtue  in  his  creatures  than  to  the 
empty  professions  of  unfruitful  acknowledgraent  of  him,  and 
will  rev/ard  the  unprofitable  servant  equally  with  him  who  has 
improved  his  talents. 

But,  whatever  vain  men  may  teach  or  wicked  men  choose  to 
believe,  God  is  not  mocked.  The  unchangeable  differences  of 
ijrood  and  evil,  of  virtue  and  vice,  remain  unaltered.     The  ri2:ht- 


FRUIT  ACCORDING  TO  SEED  SOWN.  469 

t^ous  laws  of  his  kingdom  remain  in  full  force.  The  rule  of 
liis  righteous  judgment  is  fixed,  and  recorded  for  our  benefit ; 
and  that  rule  is,  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

Wliat,  then,  are  we  sowing,  my  brethren  and  hearers  ]  what 
preparation  are  we  making  for  that  great  harvest  of  eternal  life 
or  everlasting  death,  to  which  each  one  of  us  shall  be  adjudged, 
according  to  what  we  now  sow  ?  We  read  in  the  verse  follow- 
ing my  text,  He  that  soiveth  to  the  flesh,  shall  of  the  flesh  reap  cor- 
ruption; but  he  that  soiocth  to  the  Spiput,  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap 
life  everlasting.  Have  we,  then,  considered,  with  the  seriousness 
it  deserves,  this  master  distinction  in  our  religious  condition  ; 
and  realized  what  these  different  pursuits  end  in  1  Oh  !  if  we 
have  not,  let  us  now — before  that  night  cometh  in  which  no  man 
can  work — let  us  look  our  condition  in  the  face !  Let  us  meet  the 
interests  of  our  souls  with  an  honest  desire  to  profit  by  the  yet 
sparing  mercy  of  God,  and  improve  this  awakening  passage  of  his 
holy  word,  to  our  eternal  good  !  Who  knows  but  (as  it  is  the 
Lord's  day)  it  may  be  God's  time  to  visit  and  quicken  us  1 
Here  are  of  all  ages  and  descriptions — of  all  professions  and 
worldly  occupations  present.  Let  us,  then,  begin  and  ask  in 
order.  What  are  we  doing  for  eternity  1  What  preparation  are 
we  making  for  that  great  harvest  of  the  world,  in  which  the 
reward  of  our  hands  shall  be  given  us  ? 

But  with  whom  shall  we  begin  1  Let  us  state  the  most 
numerous  class  in  that  great  body  of  opposition  to  God  Avhich 
this  earth  contains. 

First,  then,  the  wordling — by  which  I  mean  the  person  whose 
chief  object  and  pursuits  is,  the  things  that  are  seen — the  accom- 
modations, enjoyments,  and  emoluments  of  time. 

My  brother  in  nature  and  in  iniquity,  what  seed  art  thou 
sowing  1  what  crop  art  thou  cultivating  ]  and  what  harvest  dost 
thou  expect  to  reap  1  Has  the  thought  ever  taken  hold  of  thy 
heart,  and  the  question  been  met,  as  from  an  immortal  spirit, 
soon  to  appear  before  its  awful  Judge  ?  or,  has  the  god  of  this 
world  blinded  thy  mind,  among  those  that  believe  not,  lest  the  light 
of  the  glorious  gospel  of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God,  should 
shine  unto  thee  ?  Has  the  glory  of  the  world,  held  up  before 
jthee  by  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air,  shut  out  from  thy 


470  FRUIT    ACCORDING    TO    SEED    SOTVN. 

view  the  "-lory  o/God,  shining  in  the  face  0/ Jesus  Christ,  sent 
to  redeem  and  deliver  thee  from  his  power?  O,  if  he  has,  let 
me  now  do  mine  office  towards  thee,  by  turning  thee  from  dark- 
ness to  light,  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  to  God,  through  the 
life  and  power  of  the  word  of  God.  What  is  a  man  profited  if 
he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  Canst 
thou  answer  that?  Can  thy  calculations  of  profit  and  loss  take 
in  this  risk,  and  find  a  premium  equal  to  it  1  No  !  ichat  shall  a 
man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ? 

But,  perhaps,  prosperity  has  thee  by  the  hand,  and  new  barns 
and  new  warehouses  are  required  for  increasing  goods,  and  thou 
art  saying  to  thy  soul,  he  merry,  and  take  thine  ease,  for  thou  hast 
much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years.  But  tell  me,  hast  thou 
the  years  1  Art  thou  insured  against  death  ?  May  it  not  be 
said  to  thee  as  to  the  fool  in  the  parable,  this  night  shall  thy  soid 
be  required  of  thee,  and  then  whose  shall  all  these  things  be  ? 
Canst  thou  take  them  with  thee,  and  enjoy  them  in  the  invisible 
state  1  No  !  we  brought  nothing  into  this  world,  and  it  is  equally 
certain  that  we  can  carry  nothing  out.  Will  God  accept  them  as 
a  ransom  for  thy  soul  ?  No  !  we-are  not  redeemed  ivith  corrupti- 
ble things,  as  silver  and  gold,  but  with  the  precious  blood  0/  Christ. 
What,  then,  is  this  world — in  the  whole  extent  of  its  praise,  and 
power,  and  splendour — worth  to  an  immortal  spirit  on  trial  for 
eternity  1  Every  tongue  can  answer,  that  it  is  nothing  worth  ; 
every  understanding  can  perceive  the  folly  of  such  a  depend- 
ance  ;  and  the  worse  than  folly  of  making  that  our  main  object 
in  this  life  which  cannot  profit  us  in  the  day  of  wrath  and  reve- 
lation of  the  righteous  judgment  0/  God.  O,  if  those  who  are  taken 
in  this  snare  would  but  ask  themselves,  What  is  all  that  I  am  so 
busily  engaged  about  doing  for  my  soul  1  How  does  God  look 
upon  it  1  What  will  the  event  be  in  eternity  1 — and  take  the 
answer  from  his  true  and  faithful  word  ;  surely  there  is  a  voice 
of  wisdom,  even  in  the  reason  of  our  own  minds,  which  might 
counteract  this  temptation — might  strengthen  us  to  resist  its 
seducing  effect,  and  bring  us  to  God  on  the  warrant  of  his  pro- 
mise, for  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need  !  But  no  !  the  deaf  adder 
is  not  more  deaf  to  the  voice  of  the  charmer,  charm,  he  never  so 
wisely,  than  the  worldling  is  to  the  united  testimony  of  reason 


PRUIT    ACCORDING    TO    SEED    SOWN.  471 

and  religion.  Even  at  tliis  moment,  when  his  conscience  re- 
sponds to  the  truth  instead  of  opening  his  heart  to  receive  it, 
he  is  striving  how  to  put  it  away  from  him,  and  to  find  some 
subterfuge  under  which  to  take  shelter.  And  readily  will  we 
find  some  flimsy  pretence  to  make  the  M^orse  appear  the  better 
reason.  His  master  is  on  the  watch  to  prompt  the  ready  evasion, 
and  even  to  say,  ye  shall  not  surely  die ;  and  the  strong  delusion 
wliich  heaven  threatens  to  send  upon  those  who  will  not  believe, 
makes  the  devil's  lie  superior  to  the  truth  of  God.  But  as  no  lie 
is  of  the  truth,  so  this  will  be  found  emphatically  of  the  father  of 
lies  in  that  day,  when  the  fire  shall  try  every  man's  work,  whether 
it  be  good  or  evil.  In  this  harvest  of  the  world,  then,  what  is  the 
worldling  to  reap  1  He  hath  laid  up  treasure  upon  earth ;  but 
the  earth  and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be  burnt  up.  He  is 
rich  and  increased  in  goods  ;  but  he  is  not  rich  towards  God. 
No  seed  has  been  sowed  to  the  glory  of  God  ;  there  is,  there- 
fore, to  him  no  harvest  of  reward  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
and  of  God.  Take,  then,  thy  gains  in  that  day,  worldling,  and 
weigh  them  now  in  the  balances  of  the  sanctuary,  and  count 
their  worth.  Open  thine  ear  to  hear  and  thine  heart  to  receive 
instruction,  and  be  no  longer  deceived,  for  God  is  not  mocked; 
whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

Secondly,  the  sensualist,  by  which  I  mean  the  slave  of 
appetite— the  brutal  follower  of  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  whether 
openly  profligate  or  more  secretly  offending. 

What  seed  is  the  glutton  and  the  drunkard  sowing  for  eternity? 
And  of  what  description  must  his  heaven  be,  to  meet  the  pro- 
pensities of  his  nature  1  An  eternity  of  brutlfied  faculties,  and 
inflamed  passions— a  heaven  of  riot  and  intemperance,  of  oaths 
and  blasphemy.  Why,  the  very  thought  is  impious  !  And  yet, 
for  what  else  is  the  drunkard  prepared  1  or  in  what  else  can 
he  find  satisfaction  ?  We  may  suppose  the  mere  worldly  minded 
capable  of  being  gratified  in  endless  pursuit  and  accumulation  ; 
for  there  is  something  of  mind — of  intellectual  exercise,  in 
scheme  and  calculation.  But  to  the  glutton  and  the  drunkard 
intellect  is  of  no  use  ;  his  great  purpose  is,  by  repeated  trial,  to 
extinguish  It  and  come  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  brute.  Where, 
then,  shall  a  place  be  found  in  God's  kingdom  of  exalted  and 


472  FRUIT    ACCORDING    TO    SEED    SOWN. 

refined  perception,  purity  and  peace,  for  such  characters  1 
And  where  shall  infinite  wisdom — to  say  nothing  of  justice — 
assign  them  their  place  in  eternity,  but  with  such  as  themselves  ? 
As,  in  this  world,  they  are  an  offence  to  all  decency,  so,  in  the 
world  to  come,  must  they  be  excluded  from  those  who  shall 
stand  before  God.  But  when  we  come  to  add  sin  to  the  account 
of  the  drunkard,  and  count  up  the  fearful  wages  reserved  for  it, 
then  it  is  that  the  folly  of  this  brutishness  is  apparent — the  mad- 
ness of  this  self-destruction  conspicuous.  The  seed  they  have 
sown  in  time  must  produce  after  its  kind  in  eternity  ;  and  what 
that  is,  we  learn  from  the  parable  of  the  rich  glutton  in  the 
gospel.  He  fared  sumptuously  every  day,  and  indulged  his  appe- 
tite ;  but  he  died,  and  in  hell  he  lift  up  his  eyes  in  torments,  and 
petitioned  for  a  little  water  to  cool  his  burning  tongue,  but  it 
was  denied  him.  /  am  tormented  in  this  flame,  said  he  ;  but  not 
one  drop  of  those  plenteous  libations  in  which  he  had  debauched 
himself,  was  now  at  his  command.  He  increased  thirst  and 
nourished  an  artificial  fever  in  his  veins,  by  intemperance,  when 
upon  earth — this  was  the  seed  he  sowed,  and  the  thirst  of  ever- 
lasting burnings  is  the  crop  he  reaps.  Oh  !  what  a  price  to  be 
paid  for  the  sordid  indulgence  of  intoxication.  But  the  only, 
and  the  certain  price.  For  God  hath  said — and  he  is  not 
mocked — Drunkards  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God. 

The  same  question  must  be  asked  of  another  class  of  sen- 
sualists— those  who  walk  after  the  flesh,  in  the  lust  ofuncleanness — 
the  adulterers  and  fornicators  of  the  world.  With  what  seed 
are  they  sowing  the  great  field  of  eternity,  and  what  crop  shall 
they  reap  1 

Look  at  the  prowling  profligate  on  the  watch  for  his  prey  as  he 
skulks  through  darkness  with  the  thief  to  the  haunts  of  vice 
and  wretchedness  ;  and  let  darkness  close  upon  what  ought  not 
once  so  much  as  to  be  named  among  Christians.  Some  sins  can 
be  exposed  in  their  details,  and,  thereby,  made  the  more  odious  ; 
but  this  is  too  odious  for  exposure,  and,  therefore,  the  more 
hateful  in  the  sight  of  God.  Yet  to  no  other  is  the  world  so  leni- 
ent or  more  criminally  remiss  in  holding  up  to  detestation  those 
who  are  guilty  of  it.  The  wretched  creature  who  steals  your 
purse  or  your  horse  must  forfeit  all  respect,  and  even  his  life  ; 


PRUIT    ACCORDING    TO    SEED    SOWN.  473 

while  he  who  steals  iVom  innocence  its  peculiar  treasure,  or 
invades  the  sanctity  and  peace  of  wedded  life,  walks  abroad 
unquestioned,  and  is  received  with  smiles  and  favour.  But  no 
smile  beams  upon  him  from  above  ;  as  only  the  pure  in  heart 
shall  see  God.  He  whose  heart  and  body  are  both  defiled  must 
be  debarred  the  heavenly  vision.  He  hath  sowed  to  the  flesh, 
he  must,  therefore,  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption,  both  here  and 
hereafter.  He  hath  lived  after  the  flesh,  therefore,  he  must  die. 
For  God  hath  said — and  he  is  not  mocked — Fornicators  and 
adulterers  he  will  judge,  and  neither  shall  inherit  his  kingdom. 

Another  class  of  sensualists,  more  numerous  but  less  criminal 
than  those  1  have  described,  is  found  in  that  great  multitude  of 
all  ages  and  descriptions,  who,  careless  and  thoughtless  of  here- 
after, live  only  for  present  enjoyment — chiefly  the  young  and  the 
gay,  who  are  placed  above  the  necessity  of  bodily  labour,  and 
are  furnished,  without  their  own  care,  for  even  the  superfluities 
of  worldly  accommodation. 

To  such,  then,  I  put  the  question.  What  preparation  are  you 
making  for  eternity  '?     What  are  you  now  sowing  1 

Yours  is  the  spring  time  of  life,  the  propitious  season  to  sow 
in  hope  ;  yours  is  the  season  of  happy  disengagement  from  the 
cares  and  troubles  of  the  world  ;  favourable,  therefore,  to  im- 
provement of  every  kind.  What,  then,  are  you  doing  for  your 
souls  under  these  advantages  1  Are  you  sowing  to  the  flesh  or 
to  the  Spirit  1  Are  your  time  and  thoughts  applied  in  a 
reasonable  proportion  to  acquaint  yourselves  with  God  through 
his  word  ?  Does  prayer  form  a  part  of  your  daily  duty  1  Are 
your  spare  means  employed  in  acts  of  charity  and  mercy?  Are 
any  self-denials  encountered  to  enable  you  to  do  good  1  In 
short.  Are  you  remembering  your  Creator  in  the  days  of  your 
youth?  What  can  you  answer?  Are  these  things  so  in  any 
such  degree  as  to  be  relied  upon  before  God  1  If  so,  then  is 
your  seed  time  for  eternity  happily  begun,  and  your  harvest 
shall  be  abundant  ;  if  you  continue  in  the  grace  of  God,  what 
you  sow  you  shall  reap. 

But  I  fear  for  the  answer  you  can  truly  make  !     Early  piety 
is  not  the  fruit  of  these  evil  times — times  in  which  parents  think 
to  go  to  heaven  themselves,  and  let  their  children  come  if  they 
Vol.    II.— 60 


474  FRUIT    ACGORJJIING    TO    SEtiU    SOWN- 

can  ,  01,  what  is  more  tVequent,  think  it  of  no  importance  either 
to  themselves  or  their  children  how  to  get  thither.  Let  me, 
then,  put  the  question  to  you — from  your  real  condition.  Is 
your  time  wasted  in  idle  reading  and  frivolous  work  1  Are 
your  thoughts  occupied  with  the  vanities  of  the  world,  and  youi' 
means  applied  to  adorn  you  for  its  vicious  dissipations  1  Is  self- 
denial  unthought  of,  and  charity  turned  over  to  fathers  and 
mothers  ?  Is  the  Sabbath  itself,  sincj  even  the  house  of  God, 
made  a  party  to  the  indulgence  and  enjoyment  of  personal 
admiration,  and  God  not  in  all  your  thoughts,  as  he  ought  to  be 
in  the  thoughts  of  every  accountable  being  under  the  gospel  ? 
Is  this  the  seed  you  are  sowing  for  eternity  in  this  your  spring 
time  of  life,  in  which  you  are  so  highly  favoured  1  Oh  !  if  the 
root  he  thus  rottenness,  shall  not  the  blossom  go  up  as  dust  ?  And 
if  the  blossom  be  thus  withered,  where  shall  the  fruit  be  found  ] 
What  crop  can  you  expect  to  reap  either  for  time  or  for  eter- 
nity ?  Are  balls,  and  theatres,  and  frolics,  and  parties  seed 
plants  to  bear  heavenly  glory  1  Do  they  savour  of  God,  or  of 
the  world  1  Do  such  things  i)romote  his  fear  and  love  in  your 
hearts,  or  shut  him  out  altogether  from  your  thoughts  as  God  ? 
And  how  shall  those  appear  before  him  who,  in  this  life  of  trial 
and  preparation,  have  laid  another  foundation,  have  nothing  but 
the  fashionable  follies  of  a  sin-struck  world  to  recommend  them 
to  God  1  For,  will  God  accept  of  them  1  This  will  determine 
their  real  worth.  Ask,  then,  at  his  word,  and  receive  the  an- 
swer— Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not  mocked  :  for  whatsoever  a 
man  sotvelh,  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

To  Christians,  also,  and  to  them  above  all  others,  is  it  neces- 
sary to  put  the  question  prompted  by  my  text.  Their  profession, 
the  honour  of  God,  and  the  success  of  the  gospel,  as  well  as 
their  own  salvation,  all  bind  upon  them  to  loalk  worthy  of  their 
high  calling  and  glorious  hope.  And,  unless  these  motives  enter 
into  the  estimate  they  form  of  the  gospel,  they  will  in  something 
come  short  of  their  duty.  JVo  man  liveth  unto  himself,  especially 
no  Christian.  His  life  ouglit  to  be  an  active,  persevering  effort 
to  promote  the  glory  of  God  by  promoting  the  welfare  of  all  to 
whom  he  has  access,  particularly  their  spiritual  weltare.  This 
duty  finds  its  first  exercise  in  the  family  of  the   Christian.     In 


FRUIT  ACCORDING  TO  SEEn  SOWN.  475 

addition  to  the  ties  of  natural  affection,  he  stands  pledged  for 
them  in  obtaining  God's  covenanted  blessings.  Under  and  sub- 
servient to  the  claims  of  natural  affection,  his  duties  branch  out 
through  kindred  to  kind.  As  a  member  of  the  great  human 
family,  and  himself  a  child  of  the  God  and  Father  of  the  spirits 
of  all  flesh,  a  feeling  of  brotherhood  includes  even  the  most 
distant  and  unknown.  But  it  is  to  those  immediately  in  his  reach, 
particularly  the  household  of  faith,  that  his  most  active  exertions 
are  applied.  The  poor  and  the  needy,  the  suffering  and  afflict- 
ed, find  the  true  Christian  a  friend  and  a  comforter  ;  even  the 
,>  vicious  and  the  profligate  are  not  out  of  the  reach  of  his  good 
wishes  and  good  offices,  so  far  as  they  will  suffer  them.  His 
example  gives  no  countenance  to  conformity  with  the  world  in 
many  of  its  vain  and  vicious  pursuits  ;  nor  is  the  name  of  Christ, 
in  this  respect,  blasphemed  through  those  over  whom  he  has 
either  control  or  influence.  And,  in  his  more  private  deport- 
ment, God  sees  the  deep  and  earnest  devotion  with  which  he 
serves  him,  prays  unto  him,  and  depends  upon  him  :  and  he  sees 
it  to  bless  it — For  unto  him  that  hath  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall 
have  abundance. 

Now,  then,  my  Christian  brethren  of  this  congregations,  is  it 
with  seed  of  this  kind  that  you  are  sowing  the  field  from  which 
your  harvest  is  to  be  reaped  1  To  the  extent  of  your  power,  does 
the  love  of  Christ  constrain  you  to  do  good  unto  all  1  Par- 
ticularly, does  it  draw  you  forth  with  diligence  to  implant  the 
fear  of  God  in  your  children,  and  to  train  them  up  to  his 
service*?  Are  you  sowing  this  field  of  duty  thick  with  prayer  for 
the  divine  blessing  and  direction  1  Is  the  world  overcome  in  the 
temptation  of  its  unsanctified  vanities,  and  all  conformity  with  its 
vicious  pursuits  put  away  from  you  1  Are  you  frequent  in  your 
closet,  and  your  heart  warmed  and  your  spirit  strengthened  by 
your  devotions  1 — These  are  seeds  of  grace  which  surely  ripen 
for  glory  in  eternity  :  and  that  glory  shall  be  yours  if  ye  are 
found  faithful  unto  death.  But  be  not  deceived.  If  you  are 
sowing  this  field  with  other  or  with  mixed  seed,  you  lose  your 
labour.  Either  make  the  tree  good,  and  his  fruit  good,  or  the  tree 
corrupt,  and  his  fruit  corrupt'  1  icould  thou  wert  cold  or  hot,  says 
our  Lord  ;   because  thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot,  1  will  spue  thee 


47$         FRUIT  ACCORDING  TO  SEED  SOWN. 

out  of  my  mouth.  Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not  mocked  :  for  what- 
soever a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

What  then  remains,  my  hearers  generally,  but  to  exhort  you 
to  bring  your  worldly  condition  to  the  test  of  this  equitable  rule ; 
and  now,  in  this  the  seed  time,  every  one  of  us  for  eternity,  to 
seek  the  good  seed  of  the  kingdom  to  be  sown  in  our  hearts  ; 
and  to  cultivate  it  carefully  in  our  lives,  that  the  fruit  may  be 
unto  holiness,  and  the  end  everlasting  life. 

J^ow  unto  Him  that  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above 
all  that  we  ask  or  think,  unto  him  be  glory  in  the  Church,  by 
Christ  Jesus  throughout  all  agesy  world  without  end.    Amen, 


SERMON  XLII. 


THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE. 


Luke  xiii.  7. 


"  Then  said  he  to  the  dresser  of  his  vineyard,  Behold,  these  three  years  I  come 
seeking  fruit  on  this  fig  tree,  and  find  none :  cut  it  down ;  why  cumbereth  it  the 
ground  7" 

The  immediate  connexion  of  the  subjects  in  some  of  our 
Lord's  discourses,  as  recorded  by  the  Evangelists,  is  discernible 
only  by  careful  and  diligent  consideration  of  the  context.  Of 
this  the  conversation,  of  which  my  text  forms  a  part,  may 
serve  for  an  example. 

The  lesson  we  should  ail  learn  from  it  is  obvious  enough ;  but 
the  connexion  it  has  with  the  fate  of  those  Galileans  whose  blood 
Pilate  mingled  with  that  of  their  sacrifices,  and  of  those  on  whom 
the  tower  of  Siloam  fell  (respecting  which  events  our  Lord  was 
discoursing  with  his  disciples)  is  not  so  evident.  The  transition — 
from  an  exhortation  to  repentance  grounded  on  the  sudden  and 
unlooked  for  destruction  which  overtook  them,  to  the  patience 
of  God  with  delaying  sinners — to  be  profitably  applied  by  us, 
requires  to  be  carefully  considered  and  brought  home  to  indivi- 
dual condition.  But  when  thus  considered,  as  it  is  more  striking 
in  its  application,  and  calculated  to  make  a  more  serious 
impression  upon  the  conscience  of  the  man  ;  so  is  it  nearer  to 
that  divine  blessing,  that  supernatural  energy  of  conviction, 
which  makes  the  word  of  God  life  and  power  to  our  souls. 

The  use  I  would  make  of  this  observation  at  the  entrance  of 
my  discourse  is  two  fold. 

First,  to  draw  your  attention  in  general  to  the  very  serious 
injury  to  your  souls,  which  arises  from  mere  cursory  reading  of 
the  Scriptures  ;  by  which  I  mean  such  a  reading  of  them  as  is 
unconnected  with  a  deeply  felt  personal  interest  in  what  they 
contain.     God's  message  to  mankind  is  not  only  a  revelation  of 


478  THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREF. 

his  win  to  the  world  in  general,  but  a  special  and  personal 
communication  to  each  particular  individual  who  is  called  into 
being  under  the  grace  and  truth  which  came  by  Jesus  Christ, 
From  this  alone  can  any  individual  derive  satisfactory  informa- 
tion of  his  actual  condition,  of  his  obligations  to  God,  of  the 
duties  required  in  return,  and  of  the  sanctions  by  which  they  are 
enforced.  To  read  It,  then,  as  a  mere  fund  of  general  informa- 
tion, as  something  important  perhaps,  but  not  special  and 
personal,  not  as  a  direct  communication  from  heaven  to  him 
who  peruses  it,  is  at  the  very  outset  to  make  the  word  of  God 
of  none  effect.  And  to  this  cause,  I  am  verily  persuaded,  it  is 
owing  that  numbers  who  admit  the  divine  authority  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  have  read  their  Bibles,  have  yet  derived  no  profit 
from  the  word  of  life.  Yet  in  assigning  this  as  the  cause  why 
so  many  rational  beings,  with  his  message  in  their  hands,  are  yet 
at  a  distance  from  God,  and  as  careless  and  negligent  of  the 
interests  of  eternity  as  if  the  present  life  were  the  boundary  of 
their  existence,  I  would  not  be  understood  as  meaning  to 
exclude  the  many  other  causes  which  combine  with  superhuman 
power  against  the  soul;  but,  according  to  my  experience,  to 
place  the  one  I  have  mentioned  in  the  front  rank,  as  that  by 
which  all  the  others  are  increased  in  their  power,  and  finally 
established  in  their  dominion  over  us.  Show  me  the  man  who 
has  read  his  Bible  only  as  a  general  communication  to  mankind, 
and  I  will  show  you  the  man  who  has  laid  it  aside,  and  has  no 
concern  with  religion.  He  may,  indeed,  be  externally  respect- 
ful to  its  forms  occasionally,  and  be  one  who  is  amiable  and 
estimable  for  the  life  that  now  is  ;  but  for  the  great  and  ulterior 
purpose  of  our  present  being,  he  is  the  fig  tree  on  which 
there  is  nothing  but  leaves.  Rut  show  me  the  man  who  has 
received  and  read  his  Bible  as  a  communication  from  heaven  to 
himself,  and  I  will  show  you  the  man  who  continues  in  that 
word — who  is  a  Christian  by  open  profession  and  by  practice, 
and  is  the  fig  tree  which  has  fruit  as  well  as  leaves. 

The  next  use  I  would  make  of  the  introductory  observation 
on  my  text  is,  to  warn  you  against  a  very  common  cause  of 
disregard  and  inattention  in  reading  the  Scriptures,  growing  out 
of  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  the  instruction  they  contain  is 
expressed. 


THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE.  479 

The  moral  ol'  a  parable  and  tlie  sitnilitude  and  application  of 
a  figure  require  attention  and  reflection  on  the  part  of  the  hearer 
to  render   them  profitable.      If,    therefore,  either   from   some 
fancied  obscurity  in  the  allusion,  or  from  some  assumed  diffi- 
culty in  the  application,  we  neglect  altogether  or  misapply  the 
instruction  thus  given,  we  stand  justly  chargeable  with  all  the 
consequences  which  must  follow.     That  enmity  and  opposition 
to  religion  which  is  the  mark  of  the  natural  man  ;  his  inaptitude 
to  discern  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  of  which  he  is 
advertised  ;  with  the  powerful  influence  of  present  and  sensible 
things,  against  which  he  is  most  earnestly  warned  ;  all  conspire 
to  urge  him  to  an  escape  from  the  just  and  direct  application  of 
what  can  colourably  be  evaded  in  the  warning  and  instruction 
of  the  Scriptures.     And  though  this  ruinous  disposition  of  mind 
is  met  at  the  moment  by  the  verdict  of  conscience— by  the  In- 
ward misgivings  of  the  heart,  that  it  is  a  false  and  forced  conclu- 
sion we  have  come  to,  yet  by  what  thousands  of  accountable 
and  immortal  beings,  who  are  to  be  judged  too  by  this  very 
word,  is  this  ruinous  delusion  followed  !     It  is,  indeed,  true,  my 
hearers,  that  the  Scriptures  themselves  form  a  part  of  our  trial ; 
they  are  so  framed,  that  we  may  draw  from  them  the  wisdom  of 
salvation,  or  pervert   them  to   destruction  ;  and  in  this  respect 
they  stand  on  the  same  ground  with  all  the  other  provisions  of 
God's  mercy  and  goodness  to  moral  beings.  This  circumstance, 
therefore,  so  far  from  lessening  the  obligation  we  are  under  to 
use  all  diligence  to  acquaint  ourselves  with  the   mind  of  the 
Spirit,  increases  it  by  the  fuU  amount  of  all  those  awful  conse- 
quences which  await  our  failure  or   success  in  this  primary 

duty. 

That  it  was  designedly  and  of  wise  purpose,  and  not  merely 
in  compliance  with  the  figurative  style  of  language  common  to 
the  Eastern  nations,  that  our  Lord  delivered  his  instructions  to 
the  people  In  parables  and  figures  of  known  and  visible  things, 
we  have  his  own  declaration  in  two  instances,  and  both  of  them 
so  expressed  as  to  require  careful  consideration  in  order  to 
their  being  rightly  understood. 

The  first  is  in  these  words  :  Therefore  speak  I  to  them  in  para- 
bles,  because  they   seeing,  see  not ;    and   hearing,  they  hear  not^ 


480  THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE. 

neither  do  therj  understand.  This  reproach  and  reproof,  so  often 
objected  by  our  Lord  to  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  in  particular, 
and  to  the  whole  Jewish  people  in  general,  was  not  occasioned 
by  any  want  of  natural  parts  or  faculties,  but  because  of  their 
want  of  a  disposition  and  readiness  to  receive  instruction.  The 
one  would  have  been  a  pitiable  defect  for  which  they  could  not 
be  held  answerable  ;  but  the  other  evidenced  such  a  proud  con- 
tempt of  truth  and  right,  such  a  perverse  neglect  of  their  highest 
interests,  as  rendered  them  and  all  others  of  a  similar  disposition 
worthy  to  be  given  over  to  their  own  ignorance  and  conceit. 

The  next  declaration  of  our  Lord  is  expressed  in  language 
still  more  remarkable  :  All  these  things  are  done  in  parables,  that 
seeing  they  may  see  and  not  perceive,  and  hearing  they  may  hear 
and  not  understand,  lest  at  any  time  they  should  be  converted,  and 
their  sins  should  be  forgiven  them.  From  which  we  are  to  under- 
stand— not  that  it  was  the  design  of  Christ  to  impede  the 
salvation  of  those  who  heard  him  by  the  manner  in  which  he 
framed  his  instructions — No  !  God  forbid  !  for  that  would  be 
to  contradict  the  express  and  declared  purpose  for  which  he 
came  into  the  world  ;  but  the  meaning  is,  that  he  chose  to 
deliver  his  doctrine  in  such  a  manner  that  those  only  who  were 
really  desirous  to  know  the  will  of  God,  and  disposed  to  do  it 
when  known — who  were  anxious  to  be  informed,  and  willing  to 
search  for  instruction  in  righteousness  as  forbid  treasure — might 
receive  and  profit  by  his  teaching,  while  the  careless  and  negli- 
gent, the  proud,  conceited,  and  incorrigible  should  reap  the 
fruit  of  their  wilful  perversencss  in  remaining  blind  and  deaf  to 
all  his  instructions  and  exhortations.  And  this  explanation  of 
our  Saviour's  declarations,  as  on  the  one  hand  it  clears  them 
from  all  contradiction  in  the  terms,  and  relieves  us  from  deriving 
any  impious  doctrine  therefrom  ;  so  on  the  other  hand  I  trust  it 
will  convince  all  who  hear  me,  that  something  more  than  mere 
reading  the  Scriptures  is  necessary  to  derive  from  them  the 
saving  knowledge  with  which  they  are  stored,  and  enforce  that 
consideration  and  earnest  inquiry  into  their  true  meaning  and 
application  which  it  is  the  object  of  these  introductory  observa- 
tions to  excite.  Their  connexion  with  and  bearing  upon  the 
subject  will  appear  from  the  more  particular  consideration  o( 
the  text,  to  which  I  now  proceed. 


THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE.  581 

Then  said  he  to  the  dresser  of  his  vineyard.  Behold,  these  three 
years  I  come  seeking  fruit  on  this  fig  tree,  and  find  none  :  cut  it 
doion  ;  xchy  cumbereth  it  the  ground  ? 

From  the  direct  application  of  this  parable  to  the  Jewish 
Church  and  people,  we  learn,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  its 
immediate  and  personal  application  to  ourselves.  God,  in  the 
inscrutable  wisdom  of  his  righteous  government,  and  in  the  just 
exercise  of  his  threatened  wrath,  having  visited  the  sins  of  his 
ancient  people,  by  casting  them  off  from  his  particular  favour 
and  covenanted  mercy,  hath  been  graciously  pleased  to  transfer 
these  unspeakable  benefits  and  high  privileges  to  the  Christian 
Church,  and  to  call  us,  by  the  spread  of  the  gospel  in  the  world, 
to  the  knowledge  of  this  grace  and  to  the  hope  of  eternal  life 
through  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  This  favoured 
condition  is  largely  set  forth  in  the  New  Testament  under  a 
similar  figure  with  that  in  my  text.  He  hath  transplanted  us 
into  his  own  vineyard  ;  therefore,  St.  Paul  addresses  the  Corinth- 
ian Church  as  God's  husbandry — as  God's  building.  He  hath 
grafted  us,  wild  olive  trees  by  nature,  into  the  true  olive  tree 
making  us  partakers,  according  to  the  same  apostle's  argument 
to  the  Roman  Christians,  of  the  root  and  fatness  of  a  cultivated 
plant ;  having  furnished  us  in  his  word  and  ordinances,  and  in 
the  gift  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  with  all  that  is  needful  for  growth 
and  fruitfulness.  Reasonably,  therefore,  does  he  expect  the 
seasonable  returns  of  his  care  and  kindness,  in  those  fruits  of 
righteousness  which  are  by  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  praise  and  glory 
of  God.  This,  my  dear  friends,  is  the  true  condition  of  every 
soul  under  the  light  of  the  gospel.  From  this  condition,  and  the 
obligations  it  involves,  nothing  in  the  reach  of  human  power  and 
ingenuity — no  subterfuge  of  unbelief — no  sophistry  of  this 
world's  wisdom  can  possibly  release  you  ;  and  this  is  what  the 
figure  in  my  text  is  designed  to  press  upon  your  attention. 

I.  Hence  it  will  follow,  that  the  first  head  of  doctrine  furnished 
by  my  text,  is,  the  absolute  necessity  of  spiritual  improvement — 
of  growth  in  grace.  This  is  the  fruit  required  by  the  owner  of 
the  vineyard,  which  is  expected  to  be  found  on  us  as  Christians, 
as  plants  of  God's  husbandry.  From  this  nothing  can  excuse 
any  of  us,  my  hearers,  as   is   most  strikingly  exhibited  in  the 

Vol.  n.— 61 


482  THE  UNFRUITFUL  FIG  TREE. 

parable  of  the  talents,  in  which  we  are  taught  that  the  equity  of 
the  great  Governor  of  the  universe  proportions  his  demands 
according  to  what  he  has  bestowed,  and  in  which  the  negligent, 
slothful,  and  unproductive  servant  stands  condemned,  not 
for  the  waste  and  abuse  of  his  Lord's  talent  in  actual  sin  and 
wickedness,  but  for  failing  to  improve  it.  It  needs  not,  then, 
ray  dear  hearers,  that  we  be  actual  sinners,  outbreaking  profli- 
gates, to  incur  the  wrath  of  God  in  the  miseries  of  outer  dark- 
ness and  rejection  from  his  presence.  Neglect  of  the  gospel — 
indifference  to  the  salvation  it  brings,  will  exclude  from  the 
reward  it  reveals.  So  that  however  moral,  however  orderly, 
however  upright,  however  respectful  to  religion  our  outward 
deportment  may  be,  yet  if  our  hearts  are  unchanged,  if  heavenly 
affections  are  not  stirred  up  in  our  souls,  if  divine  grace  is  not 
improved  to  holiness  of  life,  we  cannot  see  the  Lord.  Having 
no  heavenly  fruit  of  the  Spirit  of  God  to  show,  we  are  barren 
fig  trees,  fit  for  nothing  but  to  be  cut  down  and  cast  out  of  the 
vineyard. 

II.  Another,  and  very  important  head  of  doctrine  contained  in 
my  text  is  this  :  That  there  is  a  limit  to  the  patience  and  forbear- 
ance of  God  in  his  dealings  with  us  as  sinners.  These  three  years 
I  come  seeking  fruit  on  this  fig  tree,  and  find  none  :  cut  it  down. 
But  though  this  is.  undeniably  a  clear  inference  from  the  text, 
and  is  confirmed  by  very  many  other  passages  of  Scripture,  and 
by  the  true  nature  of  a  probationary  state,  grounded  on  super- 
natural assistance ;  yet  we  are  not  to  understand  that  the  day 
of  grace  afforded  under  the  gospel  is  limited  to  three  years, 
according  to  our  own  or  any  other  computation  of  time.  It 
simply  means  a  determinate  space  given  to  every  man,  wherein, 
by  the  use  of  the  prescribed  means,  to  make  his  calling  and 
election  sure.  Within  which  space,  repentance  towards  God, 
and  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  will  avail  for  pardon  and 
acceptance  ;  but  beyond  which,  neither  repentance,  nor  faith^ 
nor  acceptance  are  possible. 

To  a  doctrine  thus  awakening  in  itself,  and  calculated  to 
startle  the  thoughtless  and  secure,  there  is  inseparably  annexed 
the  awful  uncertainty  of  what  the  extent  of  each  particular 
person's  limit  may  be.    This,  equally  with  the  time  of  our  death 


THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE.  483 

and  the  final  judgment,  God  hath  mercifully  and  wisely  left 
among  the  secret  things  of  his  own  counsel ;  while  in  making 
known  the  certainty  of  the  event,  he  hath  revealed  all  that  can 
be  useful  to  quicken  our  slothful  spirits.  O  that  poor  delaying 
sinners,  that  the  thoughtless  votaries  of  pleasure,  falsely  so 
called,  would  but  consider  at  what  a  dreadful  risk  they  continue 
to  slight  the  affectionate  warnings  and  admonitions  of  God's 
holy  word,  and  the  secret  voice  of 'heir  own  consciences  !  For 
the  time  may  come  (it  is  threatened  by  him  who  cannot  lie) 
when  they  shall  call,  but  God  loill  refuse  to  answer — when  distress 
<md  anguish  shall  seize  upon  them,  but  God,  even  the  most 
merciful  God,  shall  laugh  at  their  calamity  and  mock  when  their 
fear  comcth.  It  is  threatened  in  the  words  of  my  text,  my  delaying, 
spirit-grieving  hearers — Cut  it  down,  why  cumbereth  it  the  ground  ? 
which  leads  me  to  the 

III.  Third  and  last  head  of  doctrine  I  shall  notice  from  the 
text. 

It  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  but  after  that  the  judgment. 
Religion  without  accountability  is  a  baseless  fabric ;  and 
accountability  without  corresponding  sanctions,  is  the  prostra- 
tion of  God's  moral  government  of  the  world.  Hence,  that  he 
should  assert  the  dignity  of  his  supreme  dominion,  and  vindicate 
the  insulted  majesty  and  purity  of  his  holy  law  upon  those  who 
rebel  and  transgress  against  him,  is  not  only  the  clear  and  une- 
quivocal discovery  of  revelation,  but  the  insuppressible  senti- 
ment of  every  human  heart.  Without  this  universally  felt  and 
acknowledged  truth,  hope  is  a  delusion,  and  fear  a  phantom  of 
the  imagination  ;  right  and  wrong,  virtue  and  vice,  are  mere 
arbitrary  denominations,  and  the  religion  of  Christ  a  deceitful 
fable.  But,  from  natural  feeling,  from  inward  consciousness, 
from  the  light  of  reason,  from  the  testimony  of  superstition,  from 
the  whole  analogy  of  nature,  we  are  aware  that  we  are  account- 
able beings,  and  that  on  the  account  we  shall  be  able  to  give  in, 
will  depend  our  future  and  eternal  weal  or  woe.  This  deep 
and  universal  impression  cannot  be  wholly  obliterated,  my 
brethren.  We  may,  and  too  many  of  us,  alas  !  do  what  we 
can  lo  smother  our  consciences  under  the  vanities-  of  time,  and 
say  to  the  monitor  within  us,  as  Felix  did  to  St.  Paul,  Go  thy 


484  THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE. 

way  for  this  time.  But  its  power  is  shown  in  the  moment  of 
surprise  and  clanger,  when  death  demands  his  victim  ;  and  the 
fearful  anticipations  and  awful  forebodings  of  the  wicked,  equally 
with  the  hope  and  composure  of  the  righteous,  unite  in  fastening 
upon  the  soul  the  faithful  conviction,  that  what  is  revealed  will 
surely  be  executed. 

And  yet,  so  deep  is  the  depravity  of  our  fallen  nature,  so 
absolute  the  corruption  of  our  faculties,  and  so  powerful  the 
tendency  to  unbelief,  that  for  the  transient  pleasures  of  sin — 
knowing  it  to  be  sin,  for  the  poor  perishing  things  of  this  world — 
knowing  how  uncertain,  empty,  and  unsatisfying  they  are — we 
can  and  we  do,  thousands  of  us,  dare  the  sanctions  of  eternity, 
and  risk  the  wrath  of  God.  Multitudes  can  and  do  make  light 
of  the  improvement  of  their  spiritual  advantages,  required  by 
the  gospel  on  pain  of  everlasting  misery,  and  careless  whether 
they  are  fruitful  or  barren  in  the  things  of  God  and  religion, 
waste  their  day  of  grace — the  unknown  limit  of  heaven's  mercy 
and  forbearance — in  treasuring  up  ivrath  against  the  day  of  wrath 
and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God,  O  that  God 
would  be  pleased  to  touch  the  hearts  of  those  who  are  thus 
running  the  round  of  folly  and  destruction,  and  enable  me  so  to 
apply  the  subject  as  to  convince  both  saint  and  sinner  of  the 
awful  danger  in  which  neglect  of  the  advantages  conferred  by 
the  gospel  places  them  !  For  both  saint  and  sinner  are  deeply 
interested  in  the  warning  of  my  text,  according  to  their  several 
conditions. 

To  the  sinner,  (and  by  sinner  I  mean  the  person  whose  course 
of  life  is  in  opposition  to  the  gospel,  either  by  open  wickedness 
or  actual  neglect  of  religion  and  its  ordinances,)  my  text  speaks 
of  the  love  of  God,  of  the  mercies  of  redemption,  of  the  blood 
of  Christ,  of  the  means  of  grace — all  scorned,  slighted,  trod- 
den under  foot,  and  despised  ;  and  it  calls  upon  him  to  consider, 
before  it  be  too  late,  what  answer  he  can  make  to  God  for 
thus  setting  at  nought  both  his  invitations  and  his  commands. 
Let  me  ask  you,  then,  and  with  all  the  affectionate  earnestness 
of  a  friend  who  sees  and  feels  for  your  danger — are  the  works 
of  the  flesh,  in  sensuality  and  uncleanness,  in  revellings  and 
drunkenness,  in  Sabbath-breaking  and   profaneness,  the  fruit 


THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE.  485 

which  God  expects  from  a  people  whom  he  hath  favoured  with 
the  gospel  ]     Is  love  of  the  world,  in  its  vain  and  sinful  pursuits 
that  love  of  the  Father  which  the  author  of  all  your  mercies, 
the  giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift  to  his  creatures,  deserves 
and  requires  at  your  hands  1     Is  the  idolatry  of  wealth-worship, 
the  love  of  money,  that  hungering  and  thirstiiig  after  righteous- 
ness, that  seeking  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  is  enjoined 
upon  all  who  would  secure  a  place  at  his  right  hand  1    Is  entire 
disconnexion  with  religion,  under  any  of  the  multiplied  forms  in 
which  it  is  accessible  to  every  shade  of  caprice,  that  confession 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  before  men  which  we  are  com- 
manded to  make,  on  pain  of  being  denied  by  him  in  the  great 
day  of  eternity  1     Alas  !  my  dear  hearers,  such  is  not  the  spot  of 
GoD^s  children  !     Such  is  not  the  fruit  which  he  requires  and 
will  accept  as  a  return  for  the  inestimable  blessings  of  the  gos- 
pel !     No  !  the  end  of  these  things  is  death,  even  the  death  of 
the  soul.      For  the  time  cometh — and  God  only  knoweth  how 
near  it  maybe  to  any  of  you — when  the  Lord  of  the  vineyard, 
wearied  by  continual  disappointment,  with  coming  year  after 
year,  seeking  fruit  and  finding  none,  shall  pronounce  the  irrever- 
sible sentence — Let  no  fruit  grow  on  thee  for  ever.    When  the 
Holy  Spirit,  quenched  and  extinguished   by  the  love  of  sin, 
shall  take  his  final  flight,  and  leave  the  impenitent  rejecter  of 
Christ,  like  a  blasted  and  sapless  tree,  a  mere  cumberer  of  the 
ground,  fit  for  nothing  but  to  be  cut  down  and  cast  into  the  fire. 
Jlwake,  then,  thou   that   steepest,  and   arise  from  the  dead,  ere 
thy  day  of  grace  close  upon  hope  and  mercy,  now  held  out  to 
thee  through  the  cross  of  Christ  :  awake  to  faith,  to  repent- 
ance, to  calling  upon  God  with  strong  crying  and  tears,  and 
Christ  shall  give  thee  light.     Let  not  to-morrow  steal  away 
the  convictions  of  thy  heart ;  for  it  may  not  come  to  thee,  or  it 
may  come  a  blank  in  thy  salvation. 

Thus  does  this  awakening  portion  of  God's  most  holy  word 
apply  itself  to  the  consciences  of  those  who  withhold  themselves 
from  the  means  of  grace,  and  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  invitations 
of  the  gospel.  But  to  professors  of  religion — to  the  household 
and  family  of  Christ,  who  are,  in  the  proper  sense,  the  vine- 
yard of  the  Lord — it  applies  in  a  different  respect.     To  such 


486  THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE, 

it  speaks  of  improvement,  of  increase,  of  advancement  in  the 
divine  life,  of  fruitfulness  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  of  going  on  unto  perfection.  As  heirs 
of  an  incorruptable  inheritance  it  speaks  to  them  of  preparation 
for  it  in  victory  over  sin,  and  the  attainment  of  holiness.  It, 
therefore,  speaks  to  them  of  watchfulness  and  prayer  ;  of  self- 
denial  and  non-conformity  with  the  world  ;  of  diligence  and 
faithfulness  in  all  their  duties,  looking  unto  Jesus,  the  author  and 
finisher  of  their  faith.  Such  was  the  fruit  which  he  bore  towards 
God  in  the  days  of  his  flesh  ;  and  such  is  the  fruit  which  he 
requires  of  all  his  faithful  members.  To  this  gracious  end,  he 
hath  furnished  them  with  the  help  and  guidance  of  his  Holy 
Spirit  ;  the  counsel  of  his  true  and  faithful  word  ;  the  means 
of  grace  in  the  ordinances  of  his  house,  and  the  bright  example 
of  his  holy  life.  These  he  hath  left  for  their  attainment  of  eter- 
nal life  in  that  everlasting  kingdom,  whither  he  is  gone  before  to 
prepare  a  place  for  them.  But  he  hath  left  them,  my  brethren, 
on  conditions,  which  give  no  room  for  slothfulness  or  negli- 
gence ;  which  never  permit  the  Christian  to  say,  It  is  enough, 
T  have  attained — and  the  condition  which  includes  all  the  rest, 
is  growth  in  grace.  Unto  him  that  hath  shall  be  given,  and  he 
shall  have  abundance,  but  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken 
away  even  that  which  he  hath.  This  is  the  condition  set  forth  in 
the  words  of  my  text,  and  apphed  more  especially  to  his 
Church. 

And  is  it  so,  then,  my  brethren,  that  the  members  of  Christ 
may  forfeit  their  privileges  and  the  glorious  hope  under  which 
they  are  enrolled  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life  1  Yes  ;  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  himself  being  witness  against  all  inventions 
of  men,  who  would  be  wise  above  what  is  written — Behold  these 
three  years  I  come  seeking  fruit  on  this  fig  tree,  and  find  none  :  cut 
it  down ;  why  cumbereth  it  the  ground.  Let  the  unfruitful  Christian 
then  tremble  at  his  danger,  lest  the  command  be  already  gone 
forth.  Let  the  diligent  and  faithful  be  stirred  up  to  greater 
watchfulness  against  the  encroaching  spirit  of  the  world;  and  let 
all  who  have  ears  to  hear,  and  souls  to  be  saved,  learn  the  un- 
changeable condition  on  which  they  stand  for  the  mercy  or  the 
wrath  of  God  in  eternity — improvement  of  their  day  of  gospel 


THE    UNFRUITFL'L    FIG    TREE.  487 

grace,  to  the  attainment  of"  that  holiness,  wUliout  which  no  man 
shall  see  the  Lord. 

Oh !  it  is  a  heart-slaking  thought,  to  look  round  on  the  thou- 
sands of  immortal  beings  for  whom  this  grace  is  so  richly  pro- 
vided, and  to  whom  time  and  opportunity  are  given  for  the 
improvement  of  ihis  talent,  and  then  contemplate  the  apathy 
and  inditference  wherewith  religion  is  regarded  by  nations  and 
individuals,  by  high  and  low,  by  rich  and  poor,  by  bond  and  free ! 
It  is  alarming  to  mark  the  unconcern  with  which  the  flying  years 
of  an  uncertain  existence  are  permitted  to  pass  away,  one  after 
another,  without  thought,  without  impression,  without  any  seri- 
ous calculation  of  what  has  been  done,  of  what  is  yet  to  do,  for 
eternity.  Yet  by  every  vanishing  year — and  we  know  it  well, 
my  dear  hearers — eternity,  that  eternity  in  which  there  are  no 
successive  years  to  count  upon,  in  which  there  is  no  to-morrow 
for  the  thoughtless  to  escape  to,  is  by  so  much  the  nearer  to 
us  all. 

Let  the  closing  year,  then — and  surely  the  exhortation  is 
appropriate  to  my  text — let  the  closing  year  make  its  application 
of  these  truths  to  your  consciences,  and  form  a  point  for  all  to 
pause  upon,  and  count  up  how  often  in  this  way  the  lord  of  the 
vineyard  hath  come  seeking  fruit  on  this  fig  tree — to  reflect  what 
fruit  our  past  Uves  have  presented  to  God,  and  thence  be  made 
wiser  for  the  years  that  are  to  come.  Let  the  dark  but  wise 
uncertainty  which  is  spread  out  over  the  duration  of  time  and 
of  grace  to  all,  rebuke  delay,  and  rouse  to  diligence  ;  and  let 
the  past  forbearance  of  God  through  the  intercession  of  the 
merciful  dresser  of  the  vineyard,  knock  at  the  door  of  every 
heart,  and  obtain  an  entrance  for  that  truth  which  gives  hope, 
for  that  repentance  which  leads  to  God,  for  that  faith  which 
unites  to  Christ,  which  overcomes  the  world,  and  lays  hold  on 
eternal  hfe. 

Having  thus  appealed  to  you,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  from 
God,  in  behalf  of  your  immortal  souls,  permit  me  for  a  moment 
to  descend  to  myself,  and  make  my  appeal  to  this  congregation* 
as  their  pastor.     Behold  these  three  years  I  come  seeking  fruit  on 


*  Preached  at  Raleigh.  N.'C.  Dec.  31,  1826. 


488  THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE. 

this  Jig  tree.  True,  my  brethren,  three  years  of  my  very  imper- 
fect, often  interrupted,  but,  as  I  hope,  not  altogether  unfaithful 
services,  have  come  to  a  close.  It  is  a  period  of  sufficient  extent 
to  be  marked  with  effect,  and  it  is  our  joint  duty  to  pass  it  under 
a  strict  review.  As  Christians  you  must  know  whether  upon 
the  whole  you  have  profited  by  my  labours,  whether  you  are 
increasing  in  knowledge,  growing  in  grace,  strengthened  in  faith, 
and  more  devoted  to  God.  These  are  the  fruits  which  he 
requires  from  his  people,  and  which  he  commands  them  to 
manifest  in  the  daily  practice  of  their  lives.  This  has  been  my 
object  in  my  public  and  private  labours  ;  but  I  fear,  greatly  fear, 
that  they  have  not  been  rightly  directed  or  properly  received. 
For,  undeniably,  there  is  among  the  members  of  our  com- 
munion, more  conformity  with  the  world  in  things  not  directly 
sinful,  than  is  seemly  or  becoming  in  those  who  have  renounced 
the  world,  and  say  that  they  look  for  a  better  country.  Let  this, 
then,  jny  brethren,  be  taken  into  that  retrospect  which  the  time 
and  the  subject  unite  to  press  upon  our  hearts. 

The  great  security  of  the  Christian  is  engagement — such  a 
heartfelt  sense  of  the  importance  of  religion,  and  of  the  comfort 
of  Christian  hope,  as  places  it  first  in  estimation  and  desire. 
From  this  frultfulness  will  spring  as  from  its  proper  soil.  But 
v/ithout  this  lively  power,  a  dead  though  perhaps  decent  profes- 
sion of  religion  is  the  most  that  can  be  looked  for  ;  equally 
unproductive  towards  God,  unprofitable  towards  men,  and 
uncomfortable  to  the  poor  barren  fig  tree  which  rests  satisfied 
with  leaves,  and  is  careless  of  that  fruit  unto  holiness  whose 
end  is  eternal  life. 

Three  years  I  have  come,  my  brethren,  seeking  fruit  for  God, 
and  I  say  not  that  I  have  found  none.  No  !  God  forbid  !  But 
I  would  that  it  were  in  larger  quantity,  and  more  ripened.  Yet 
when  due  allowances  are  made  for  the  many  interruptions  you 
have  to  submit  to  from  my  frequent  and  necessary  absences, 
I  feel  that  there  is  great  cause  of  thankfulness  to  God,  and  en- 
couragement to  persevere.  Let  past  mercies,  then,  stir  us  all 
up  to  future  exertion,  to  put  forth  the  ability  he  giveth  for  the 
increase  of  his  kingdom,  and  to  abound  yet  more  and  more  in 
every  good  word  and  work ;  for,  herein,  says  our  blessed  Lord^ 


THE    UNFRUITFUL    FIG    TREE.  489 

is  my  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear  much  fruit.  Let  us  go  forth, 
my  brethren,  to  the  duties  and  trials  of  another  year,  strong  in 
the  Lord  and  the  power  of  his  might.  And  may  that  blessing 
which  turneth  the  wilderness  into  a  fruitful  field,  and  maketh 
streams  to  break  forth  in  the  desert,  go  with  you,  and  give  you 
victory,  and  return  seven  fold  into  your  bosom  those  fruits  of 
affection,  regard,  and  kindness  which  your. pastor  has  received 
from  his  flock. 


Vol.  II.— 62 


SERMON  XLIII. 


TKE    CAUSE    OF    UNFRUITFULNESS    IN    RKLlGiOW. 


Hebrews  iv.  2. 

"  But  the  word  preached  did  not  profit  them,  not  being  mixed  with  faith  in  thera 

that  heard  it." 


It  is  very  profitable,  rriy  brethren,  and  calculated  to  make  a 
good  impression  upon  the  heart,  to  consider  carefully  what  great 
pains  Almighty  God  hath  taken  to  make  the  fruits  of  his  com- 
passion for  a  race  of  siiT-ruined  creatures,  effectual  for  their 
recovery  and  restoration  to  his  favour.  To  this  end,  he  has  not 
only  acquainted  us  with  his  will  in  his  revealed  word,  and  given 
us  commandments  for  the  regulation  of  our  lives  ;  but  he  has 
added  thereto  the  most  powerful  motives  which  rational  natures 
can  contemplate,  in  the  happiness  or  misery  of  eternity.  These 
he  hath  set  forth,  as  the  unavoidable  consequences  of  the  part 
we  shall  pei  form  in  the  present  life,  and  urges  us,  in  the  most 
earnest  and  affectionate  manner,  to  believe  and  obey,  that  we 
may  obtain  eternal  life. 

He  has  not  only  given  us  a  faithful  delineation  of  our  own 
dispositions  and  affections,  as  corrupted  and  perverted  by  sin, 
together  with  the  wisest  counsels  and  most  effectual  means 
to  guard  against  and  counteract  their  destructive  influence  ;  but 
he  has  added  example  also,  in  the  history  of  men  of  like  pas- 
sions with  ourselves,  in  every  variety  of  condition,  and  under 
the  progressive  displays  of  that  grace  which  he  has  been  pleased 
to  manifest,  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners,  for  the  sal- 
vation of  sinners.  In  an  especial  manner,  he  hath  set  forth  the 
history  and  example  of  his  chosen  people,  the  children  of  Israel, 
as  the  standing  admonition  to  Christians,  in  the  improvement  of 
their  most  gracious  dispensation  ;  furnishing  to  every  condition 
in  life,  and  in  every  variety  of  trial,  that  lesson  of  wisdom  which 
precept  and  example  united,  present  to  rational  beings,  under 


THE    CAUSE    OF    UNFRUITFULNESS    IN    RELIGION.         491 

failure  or  success,  favour  or  rejection,  unalterably  consequent 
on  faithfulness  or  disobedience  to  the  divine  commands  ;  and,  that 
this  was  the  wise  and  gracious  purpose  of  the  recorded  history 
of  the  Jewish  people,  we  have  the  authority  of  an  inspired  apostle 
for  believing.  Jill  these  things,  says  St.  Paul,  happened  unto 
them  for  ensamples,  and  they  are  written  for  our  admonition,  upon 
ivhom  the  ends  of  the  world  are  come. 

Of  this  most  profitable  use  of  the  Scriptures  of  our  faith,  in 
the  Christian  warfare,  many  most  strilcing  instances  might  be 
given ;  but  none,  perhaps,  more  in  point  or  more  applicable  to 
the  present  times,  than  that  which  is  referred  to  in  the  words  of 
my  test ;  which  the  same  inspired  apostle  applies  as  a  warning 
to  the  Hebrew  Christians ;  and  which  we,  my  brethren  and 
hearers,  ma}',  and,  if  we  are  wise,  will,  apply  to  correct  that  care- 
less, unconcerned  temper — that  bold,  and  increasing  infidel 
spirit,  under  whose  baleful  operation  the  mercies  of  the  gospel 
are  all  neutralized,  and  the  power  of  religion  is  fast  fading  away 
from  the  profession  of  Christianity. 

But  the  word  preached  did  not  profit  them,  not  being  mixed  with 
faith  in  them  that  heard  it. 

In  discoursing  on  these  words,  I  will  first  notice  the  circum- 
stance to  which  the  apostle  alludes,  and  then  apply  them  to 
general  edification. 

The  promise  of  God  to  Abraham  was,  that  he  would  give  to 
his  descendants  the  country  where  he  then  sojourned,  to  the 
utmost  extent  of  its  boundary,  as  a  rest  and  inheritance  to  them 
and  to  their  children  for  ever.  To  this  promise,  however,  was 
annexed  the  condition  of  fidelity  and  obedience  on  their  part. 
At  the  deliverance  of  the  children  of  Israel  from  the  bondage  of 
Egypt,  this  promise  was  renewed,  and  formed  the  prominent 
object  of  their  expectations.  To  prove  their  faithfulness,  how- 
ever, and  at  the  same  time  to  manifest  himself  more  fully,  and  to 
make  his  laws  and  his  worship  known  to  them,  as  his  peculiar 
people,  God  led  them  by  the  hand  of  Moses  through  the  Red 
Sea  and  the  wilderness  of  Arabia  ;  sustaining  them  miraculously 
with  bread  from  heaven  and  with  water  from  the  rock,  which 
followed  them  in  all  their  wanderings  through  a  barren  and 
burning  desert. 


492         THE    CAUSE    OF    UNFRUITFULNESS    IN    RELIGION. 

With  the  immediate  protection  and  providence  of  Almighty 
God  thus  certified  to  their  senses,  the  heart  of  this  people  never- 
theless failed  them,  when  they  understood,  that  many  and 
powerful  nations  were  in  possession  of  the  promised  land,  with 
whom  they  had  to  contend  for  this  inheritance  ;  they,  therefore, 
refused  to  go  up  and  possess  the  land  ;  murmuring  against 
Moses,  and  in  the  face  of  all  the  wonders  hitherto  wrought  for 
their  deliverance  and  support ;  dishonouring  God  by  unbelief, 
in  distrusting  his  power  to  subdue  their  enemies  and  make  good 
his  promises.  Wherefore  the  Lord  sware  in  his  wrath,  that 
none  of  that  rebellious  generation,  with  the  exception  of  two 
individuals,  should  enter  into  the  promised  rest,  or  even  see  the 
land  ;  but  that  they  should  wander  in  the  wilderness,  until  death 
had  consumed  the  rebels,  in  the  usual  manner  in  which  human 
life  passes  on  to  its  termination. 

This  is  the  particular  circumstance  in  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
people  to  which  the  apostle  alludes,  and  on  which  he  grounds 
his  exhortation  to  Christians,  to  a  hearty  reception  and  stead- 
fast belief  of  the  promises  of  God  in  the  gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  ;  and  by  which  he  shows,  beyond  all  reasonable 
objection,  that  those  promises  are  not  absolute  and  uncondi- 
tional, but  adapted  to  the  condition  of  moral  beings,  who  are  to 
be  judged,  and  rewarded  or  punished,  according  to  their  works 
in  the  present  state  of  trial  and  preparation  for  eternity.  Let  us, 
therefore,  fear,  says  this  apostle  writing  to  Christians — Let  us, 
therefore,  fear,  lest  a  promise  being  left  us  of  entering  into  his  rest, 
any  of  you  should  seem  to  come  short  of  it;  for  unto  us  ivas  the 
gospel  preached,  as  tvell  as  unto  them.  But  the  word  preached  did 
not  profit  them,  not  being  mixed  loith  faith  in  them  that  heard  it. 

A  faithful  application  of  this  subject  to  ourselves,  then,  my 
brethren  and  hearers,  will  instruct  us  as  to  the  cause,  and  warn  us 
of  the  consequences,  of  permitting  the  mercies  of  our  condi- 
tion, and  the  counsel  of  God  for  our  salvation,  to  remain 
unheeded  and  unimproved.  Let  us,  therefore,  consider  with 
attention,  the  cause  here  assigned  for  the  indifference,  careless- 
ness, and  disregard  of  those  unspeakable  benefits,  to  the  know- 
ledge and  attainment  of  which,  God  hath  called  us  by  the 
gospel. 


THE  CAUSE  OF  UNFKUITFULNESS  IN  RELIGION.  493 

That  the  promises  and  threatenings  of  Almighty  God  should 
U  disregarded  by  rational  beings,  on  any  other  ground  than 
that  of  unbelief,  is  next  to  impossible  to  ^-"S-e.      When 
therefore,  the  Seriptures  uniformly  deirounce  A'-^"; 
of  all  sin  and  wickedness  among  men  they  appeal  to  a  principle 
the  truth  and  correctness  of  which  is  confirmed  by  mdi.du  1 
exoerience  •    for  who  is  influenced  by  information  to  which  he 
g^no  c;edit1    or,  who  is  affected  by  either  promises  or 
Leatenings,  of  which  he  doubts  or  disbelieves  *e  Perfoimance  _ 
Now,  whife  it  is  certain  that  there  are  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands,  under  the  light  of  the  gospel,  and  who  are  not  igno- 
rant of    the  facts  and  doctrines  of  revelation,  who  are  yet 
wholly  unaffected  by  any  religious  impression;    it  is  equally 
certai^i  that  there  are  very  few,  perhaps  not  one,  of  such  per- 
sons, who  could  honestly  claim  the  benefit  ot  entire  unb  lief 
we";  any  advantage  possible  from  such  an  unhappy  stae  of 
::!     ind,thisis  certified  to  us  by  the  a-Jety  and  a  a  m 
which  such  persons  manifest  at  the  approach,  or  under  the 
Terious  apprehension  of  death.     Not  that  such  apprehensions, 
hen  come  upon  them  for  the  first  time.-No  !  repeatedly,  con- 
toll  y  through  life,  have  they  knocked  ^t  the  door  of  thei 
hearts  and  urged  the  reasonableness,  the  prudence  the  safety 
o    i St  ning  to  t  ,e  still  small  voice  of  Goo,  speaking  through  their 
consc  ences,  but  have  been  told  to  wait  for  a  more  convenient 
season.     H  nee,  it  appears  that  this  master  sin  of  accountable 
le  ngs  is  not  only  a  voluntary  act,  but,  in  a  very  high  degree,  a 
forcible  rejection  of  such  testimony  as,  in  'he  agreement  of  the 
witnesses,  makes  truth  itself  more  certain.     When  the  voic 
conscience  is  confirmed  by  the  revealed  word  of  GoD-and  U  s 
immaterial  which  speaks  first-there  is  no  rfge  for  the  neglect- 
ers  of  such  irrefragable  testimony,  but  wilful  unbelief. 

Now  I  take  upo;  me  to  say-and  I  appeal  to  your  own  hear  s. 
my  hearers,  foi  its  confirmation-that  this  is  the  actual  condi- 
Uon  of  by  L  the  greater  number,  who,  here  and  elsewher 
Iwe  an  occasional  Sunday  forenoon  to  "  hearing  preaching 
°as  it  is  called.  Repeatedly  has  the  truth  P-ached  receded 
this  double  confirmation.  Again  and  agam,  has  the  hea.t 
almost  been  persuaded  to  yield.     Yea,  in  many  instances,  con- 


494  THE  CAUSE  OF  UNFRUITFULNESS  IN  RELIGION. 

viction  has  stung  the  soul  for  a  season  with  all  its  terrors.  But 
unbelief,  in  some  of  its  multiplied  deceits  of  pride,  procrastina- 
tion, and  worldly  interest,  has  driven  off  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
shut  the  door  against  the  Physician  of  souls.  If  this  is  not  so, 
why  are  so  many  among  us  regardless  of  God  and  careless  of 
eternity  1  Whence  is  it,  that  what  their  reason  assents  to,  and 
their  heart  confirms  by  its  involuntary  testimony  to  the  truth, 
shall,  in  one  little  hour,  be  put  to  flight,  and  exhibit  the  awful 
spectacle  of  redeemed  sinners — unconverted  to  God,  and 
knowing  themselves  to  be  such — yet  putting  away  from  them 
the  means  of  grace,  rejecting  the  counsel  of  God  against  their 
own  soul,  and  sporting  in  all  the  gaiety  of  unconcern,  over  that 
gulf  of  bottomless  perdition,  from  which  they  are  separated 
only  by  the  brittle,  uncertain,  and  continually  breaking  shell  of 
human  life.  The  word  preached,  does  not  profit  them  ;  Why  1 
Because  of  unbelief.  Because  it  is  not  mixed  or  accompanied 
with  faith  in  them  that  hear  it.  Full  credit  is  not  given  to  it, 
as  the  word  and  truth  of  God  ;  nor  is  any  other  cause  assigned, 
by  the  wisdom  of  God,  of  the  disregard  of  religion  by  men. 
The  corruption  of  our  nature,  indeed,  by  the  entertainment  of 
sin,  is  the  root.  But  this  very  corruption,  is  the  primary  fact 
which  revelation  discovers  to  us — the  foundation  of  all  that  fol- 
lows ;  and  is  itself  the  hardest,  perhaps  the  last  of  all,  to  be 
fully  believed.  Against  this  truth,  this  master-key  to  the  grace 
of  the  gospel,  unbelief  musters  all  its  forces.  Whatever  self- 
love  or  self-righteousness  can  suggest,  to  edge  in  something  of 
unbroken,  unperverted  good  in  our  nature — something  inde- 
pendent of  divine  grace,  unpurchased  by  the  blood  of  a  divine 
Saviour,  and  bestowed  upon  us  for  his  sake  only — is  maintained 
with  all  the  pertinacity  which  pride  can  impart,  for  the  de- 
fence of  this  citadel  of  its  power  ;  and  while  this  is  maintained, 
Christ  will  profit  us  nothing.  As  he  is  the  only  Saviour,  so  is 
he  an  entire  Saviour.  His  priceless  worth  comes  not  into 
union  with  merit  in  man.  To  you  that  believe,  he  is  precious,  says 
St.  Peter;  and  Christ  is  precious  to  the  believer,  exactly  in 
proportion  as  this  foundation-fact  of  revealed  truth  is  embraced, 
and  realized,  and  acted  upon.  It  is  the  total,  not  the  partial 
destitution  into  which  sin  hath  sunken  our  nature,  which  re- 


THE  CAUSE  OF  UNFRUIl  FULNESS  IN  RELiaiorf,  495 

quires  the  might  of  Omnipotence  to  restore,  through  CrOD  the 
Son,  bleeding  upon  the  cross,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  im- 
parting spiritual  life  to  the  soul.  By  grace  are  ye  saved,  through 
faith.  Therefore,  the  word  preached  cannot  profit  you,  so 
long  as  unbelief  maintains  its  power,  and  exalts  itself  against 
God  and  the  word  of  his  grace,  either  in  whole  or  in  part. 
While  God's  holy  word  preached  to  you  is  allowed  to  pass 
unheeded  from  your  memories,  unhonored  by  your  practice  of 
the  duties  it  enjoins  ;  while  neither  his  promises  nor  his  threat- 
enings  move  you  to  seek  the  salvation  he  offers  through  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  through  him  alone  ;  the  hope,  and 
the  comfort  of  the  gospel  is  unattainable — the  rest  that  remain- 
eth  to  the  people  of  God  cannot  be  found.  As  God  swear  in 
his  wrath,  that  the  rebellious  Israelites  shall  not  enter  into  the 
typical  rest  of  the  promised  land  ;  so  hath  he  also  sworn,  that 
the  fearful  and  unbelieving,  under  the  gospel,  shall  have  their 
part — not  in  rest,  but  in  the  lake  of  fire.  We  which  have  be- 
lieved, says  St.  Paul,  (continuing  his  argument  from  this  exam- 
ple)— we  which  have  believed,  do  enter  into  rest.  But  to  unbelief, 
there  is  no  rest,  no  security,  even  no  hope.  Its  brightest 
expectation  is  shrouded  in  darkness  ;  its  highest  assurance,  if 
we  may  use  the  word,  rests  upon  conjecture ;  its  most  com- 
manding motives  are  not  drawn  from  the  love  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus — they  are  not  derived  from  the  life  and  immortality 
brought  to  light  by  the  gospel.  To  the  unbeliever,  there  is  no 
Saviour  who  is  Christ  the  Lord  ;  no  Holy  Ghost,  the  Com- 
forter, Enlightener,  and  Sanctifier  ;  no  sacraments,  no  means 
of  grace  in  this  life ;  no  good  hope  after  death ;  no  reun- 
ion of  soul  and  body,  and  of  dear  friends  and  brethren,  in  a 
blissful  eternity.  There  may,  indeed,  be  a  God  ;  for  unbelievers 
are  not  Atheists.  But  he  is  a  God  afar  off,  he  is  a  God  that 
hideth  himself ;  who  speaketh  not  to  his  creatures  ;  who  fur- 
nishes no  provision  for  the  want  and  misery  of  a  sinner,  such  as 
man.  There  is  no  hand  to  wipe  the  tear  from  the  eye  of  the 
unbeliever — to  present  the  cup  of  consolation  to  his  wounded 
spirit ;  there  is  no  word  to  speak  of  comfort,  and  say  to  the 
penitent.  Son,  be  of  good  cheer,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee.  Dark- 
ness and  uncertainty  are  all  that  the  unbeliever  is  possessed  ofj 


496  THE  CAUSE  OF  UNFRUITFULNESS  IN  RELIGION. 

on  the  deeply  interesting  subjects  of  God  and  eternity  ;  of 
their  relation  to  the  one,  and  of  their  condition  in  the  other- 
O  that  you  may  this  day  perceive,  how  cold  and  comfortless — 
how  hopeless  and  dangerous  it  is,  to  continue  careless  and  un- 
concerned, unmoved  and  unaffected,  by  the  glorious  display  of 
divine  love,  wisdom,  and  power,  manifested  in  the  redemption  of 
the  world  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  !  and,  bursting  the  bonds 
of  unbelief,  struggle  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of 
God  !  Alas  !  how  many  gay,  and  thoughtless,  and  apparently 
happy  young  creatures ;  how  many  intelligent,  active,  and 
industrious  persons ;  how  many  grey  and  reverend  heads,  have 
yet  to  awake  to  their  true  condition,  as  unbelievers — living 
without  God  in  the  world,  and  to  learn,  that  we  are  saved  only 
by  faith — that  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given 
amongst  men,  whereby  loe  must  be  saved,  only  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  JVazareth,  openly  confessed  before  men,  and  faith- 
fully followed  in  the  example  of  his  life,  and  in  the  obedience 
of  his  holy  commandments.  But  the  word  preached  doth  not 
profit  them,  not  being  mixed  withfaith  in  them  that  hear  it. 

If  unbelief  be  thus  voluntary  and  criminal,  the  inquiry  natu- 
rally presents  itself — Is  faith  equally  voluntary,  and  within  our 
own  power  1  To  answer  this  question  aright,  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  settle,  in  the  first  place,  what  is  to  be  understood  by  the 
word. 

Faith,  in  its  full  Scriptural  meanings  is  that  assent  to  divine 
testimony  which  renews  the  heart  to  God,  and  rules  the  life  to 
his  service.  And,  in  this  sense,  such  is  the  condition  of  fallen 
creatures,  "  that  they  cannot  turn  and  prepare  themselves,  by 
their  own  natural  strength  and  good  works,  to  faith  and  calhng 
upon  God,"  as  it  is  expressed  in  our  tenth  article.  And  in  this 
sense,  and  this  only,  is  it  that  faith,  as  a  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  is  the 
gift  of  God. 

In  another  sense  of  the  word,  however,  and  that  the  one  in 
which  it  is  used  in  my  text,  faith  is  such  an  assent  to  divine  testi- 
mony as  convinces  the  understanding,  though  the  affections  and 
the  conduct  may  not  be  suitably  influenced  thereby ;  and,  in  this 
sense  of  the  word,  all  rational  beings,  through  the  undertaking 
of  Jesus  Christ,  are  rendered  capable  of  this  duty  ;  and  so  far 


THE    CAUSE    OP    UNFRUITFULNESS    IN    RELIGION.  497 

faith  is  a  voluntary  act,  and  in  our  own  power.  Hence  it  is 
that  the  want  of  faith  is  never  considered  and  spoken  of  in  the 
word  of  God  as  a  pitiable  defect,  which  it  must  be  was  it  involun- 
tary ;  but  as  a  criminal  rejection  of  truth,  confirmed  by  the 
highest  evidence.  Now,  while  it  is  very  true  that  the  strongest 
and  most  consistent  testimony  may  be  disbelieved,  yet  it  is 
equally  true  that  the  person  rejecting  sufficient  evidence  is  not 
thereby  excused,  but,  on  the  contrary,  condemned  as  unreason- 
able, obstinate,  or  prejudiced.  And  as  we  act  on  this  principle 
in  the  common  affairs  of  life,  we  have  but  to  transfer  it  to  the 
divine  testimony  in  favour  of  revealed  religion,  in  order  to  under- 
stand how,  and  to  what  extent,  the  duty  required  of  us  is  in  our 
own  power,  as  I  will  endeavour  to  show  you. 

As  faith  is  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen,  it  must,  necessarily, 
depend  upon  testimony  of  some  kind,  whether  its  object  be 
human  or  divine  things.     If  the  question,  then,  be — Hath  God, 
indeed,  revealed  his  will  to  rhankind  1  it  must  be  met  as  a  ques- 
tion of  fact,  to  be  considered  and  determined   by  its  proper 
evidence.     Now,  this  evidence,  we,  as  rational  beings,  are  able 
to  investigate  ;  to  try  it  by  such  rules  as  give  sufficient  certainty 
to  other  facts,  of  which  we  have  no  sensible  demonstration,  and 
to  determine  accordingly  :  and,  as  moral  beings,  we  are  bound, 
both  by  duty  and  interest,  to  make  this  examination,  with  the 
simplicity  and  sincerity  of  mind  which  its  supreme  importance 
demands,  and,  if  sufficiently  attested,  to  receive  and  obey  it  with- 
out delay  or  reserve.     No  sane  mind,  I  presume,  will  venture 
to  deny  the  duty  of  submission  and  obedience  on  the  part  of  all 
his  creatures,  to  the  known  and  acknowledged  will  of  God. 
But,  if  this  is  undeniably  their  duty,  it  must  be  in  their  power  ; 
for  God  cannot  require  impossibilities,  or  reveal  contradictions. 
To  the  objection,  then,  which  is  sometimes  resorted  to — that, 
in  the  revelation  given  us  of  the  v/ill  of  God,  we  are  commanded 
to  do  that,  which  at  the  same  time  we  are  told  that  we  cannot 
do — we  answer,  that  it  is  founded   altogether  on  a  superficial 
and  erroneous  view  of  the  subject,  on  perverted  doctrine,  or  is 
resorted  to  as  a  quietus  to  willful  unbelief     It  is  true  that  the 
discoveries  which  revelation  makes  to  us  of  our  natural  aversion 
to  God  and  goodness,  of  our  inabiUty  to  do  any  thing  in  itself 
Vol.  IL— G3 


498        THE    CAUSE    OF    UNFRUITFULNESS    IN    RELiaiO]?*'. 

worthy  of  his  acceptance,  are  clear  and  unequivocal.  But  it  is 
equally  true  that  those  discoveries  are  made — not  to  repress  our 
exertions,  but  to  inform  and  set  us  right  as  to  our  true  condition, 
and  to  rouse  and  stimulate  us  to  apply  and  seek  for  that  rich 
provision  of  divine  wisdom  and  grace  which  is  therein  also 
revealed  and  set  forth  as  our  portion  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  as 
the  means  through  which  we  can  render  acceptable  service  to 
the  God  of  our  salvation.  The  religion  of  fallen  sinners,  to  be 
worthy  of  God,  must  be  founded  on  grace,  or  assistance  pro- 
ceeding from  him.  The  religion  of  moral  beings,  to  be  accepted 
of  God,  must  proceed  from  the  voluntary  choice  and  improve- 
ment of  the  means  given  to  that  end.  And  in  the  union  of  these 
two  principles  consists  the  harmony  of  the  Christian  dispensation 
and  the  accountability  of  man. 

This  may,  perhaps,  be  rendered  plainer  to  you  by  an  exam- 
ple. Saving  faith,  being  the  gift  of  God,  is  beyond  the  natural 
ability  of  fallen  creatures  ;  yet  it  is  required  of  them,  in  order  to 
salvation.  But  the  belief  of  God's  revealed  word  sufficiently 
attested,  and  obedience  to  his  commands,  are  within  their  natu- 
ral ability ;  and,  by  the  performance  of  what  is  confessedly 
within  their  power,  that  which  is  not,  is  attainable.  In  other 
words — God  having  been  pleased  to  annex  his  grace,  or  the 
assistance  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  to  the  use  of  means,  it  is  thus 
to  be  sought  by  us,  and  in  this  way  to  be  obtained.  Nor  can  we 
adopt  a  different  view  of  the  subject,  unless  under  the  influence  of 
enthusiasm,  or  of  a  fatalism,  destructive  of  religion.  Besides,  as 
all  religious  attainment  is  progressive,  saving  faith,  sanctification, 
and  all  other  the  mature  fruits  of  the  Spirit  of  God  are  to  be 
looked  for,  not  at  the  commencement,  but  during  the  progress 
and  at  the  close  of  our  Christian  course.  According  to  the 
words  of  our  Saviour — He  that  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given:  for  so 
is  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  if  a  man  should  cast  seed  into  the  ground ; 
and  the  seed  should  spring  and  groiv  up,  he  knoiveth  not  how.  For 
the  earth  hringeth  forth  fruit  of  herself ;  first  the  Made,  then  the 
ear,  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear. 

If  this  view  of  the  obligation  to  believe,  and  of  our  capacity 
for  tlie  attainment  of  faith,  and  of  all  other  Christian  graces 
dependant  on  it,  is  supported  not  only  by  the  general  tenour  of 


THE    CAUSE    OF    UNFRUITFULNESS  IN  RELIGION.  499 

Scripture,  but  by  particular  texts  ;    and  is,  moreover,  the  only 
foundation   of    accountability   in  moral    creatures  ;    a  fearful 
responsibility  rests  upon  those  who    make   no   corresponding 
effort  to  consider  and  improve  their  advantages  under  the  light 
of  the  gospel.     But  the  slightest  acquaintance  with  revelation 
shows,  that  such  is  the  case.     God's  message  to  mankind  is 
addressed  to  them  as  capable  of  understanding,  believing,  and 
obeying  his  word  ;   and  his  promises  are  all  suspended  on  the 
condition  that  they  do  this.   If  this  is  not  so,  what  possible  mean- 
ing can  we  attach  to  such  texts  as  the  following  1     Repent  and 
believe  the  gospel.     Repent  and  be  baptized,  every  one  of  you,  for 
the  remission  of  sins,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.     He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved.  He  that 
believeth  not  is  condemned  already.      Come  unto  me,  all  the  ends  of 
the  earth,  and  be  saved.     Are  these,  and  thousands  like  them, 
addressed  to  beings  who  cannot  understand  and  apply  them  1 
who  have  no  control  over  their  own  corrupt  wills,  no  power  to 
withstand  the  admitted   and    forewarned   opposition   of   their 
fallen  nature,  no  reason  to  consider  and  estimate  the  conse- 
quences 1  God  forbid  !  Else  whereto  serveth  the  Bible  1  and  why 
am  I  here  to  preach  and  you  to  hear  1  and  where  is  the  warn- 
ing to  Christians  from  the  example  referred  to  In  my  text  1  Was 
the  promise  of  Almighty  God,  to  give  to  that  generation  of  the 
Jews  the  land  of  Canaan  as  an  inheritance — confirmed  as  it  was 
by  the  miracles  in  Egypt,  by  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  by  the 
manna  and  the  water  of  the  wilderness — sufficient  for  faith  to  rest 
upon  for  what  was  yet  to  fulfil  in  its  completion  1     Our  reason 
says.  Yes,  my  hearers,  and  wonders  at,  and  condemns  the  hard- 
ness and  stupidity  of  that  people.  And  shall  we  escape  a  similar 
rejection   from  the  heavenly  rest — who,  with  clearer  light,  and 
more    wonderful    displays  of  the   power   and    faithfulness    of 
Almighty  God,  continue  in  unbelief,  and,  through  carelessness 
and  love  of  the  world,  neglect  this  great  salvation  1     Therefore, 
thou  art  inexcusable,  0  man,  whosoever  thou  art  that  judgest  :  for 
wherein  thou  judgest  another,  thou  condemnest  thyself ;  for  thou 
that  judgest  doest  the  same  things. 

But  further  yet :  Faith,  says  the  apostle,  comelh  by  hearing,  and 
hearing  by  the  word  of  God. 


500         THE    CAUSE    OF    UNFRUITFULNESS  IN  RELIGION. 

God  having  revealed  his  will,  his  ministers  have  vi^herewithal 
to  preach.  But  is  mere  hearing  all  that  is  required  of  the 
people  1  Is  faith  to  come  without  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
hearer,  to  be  assured  that  it  is  the  word  of  God  that  is  preached, 
and  to  obey  it  when  heard  ?  No  !  and  no  one  but  a  fanatic  ever 
thought  so.  For  the  gospel  is  commanded  to  be  preached 
among  all  nations  for  the  obedience  of  faith  ;  and  as  reason  is 
competent  to  estimate  the  proofs  that  the  gospel  is  the  word 
which  God,  in  these  last  days,  hath  spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son,  so 
is  it  equally  competent  to  perceive  the  supreme  obligation  to 
receive  and  obey  it  as  such — to  put  forth  every  power  and  faculty 
of  a  redeemed  nature  in  this  superlative  duty  ;  and,  on  the  faith 
of  God's  command,  to  expect,  in  the  use  of  means,  the  fruit  of 
God's  promises.  He  calls  us  to  his  heavenly  rest,  and  hath  sent 
his  only  begotten  Son  to  guide  us  to  the  promised  land,  as  he 
called  his  ancient  people  from  Egyptian  bondage,  and  sent 
Moses  to  lead  them  to  Canaan.  He  promises  to  be  our  support 
and  defence  during  our  pilgrimage,  and  to  make  us  victorious 
over  all  our  enemies,  in  like  manner  as  he  promised  to  the  children 
of  Israel.  But  as  they  feared  the  Anakims  who  possessed  the 
land,  as  they  dreaded  the  toils  of  the  war  and  the  dangers  of  the 
battle,  lusting  after  the  flesh  pots  of  Egypt,  and  dishonoured 
God  by  their  unbelief;  so  do  we  too,  too  many  of  us,  fear  the 
contest  with  our  corruptions,  and  dread  the  privations  of  self- 
denial,  and,  loving  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season  more  than  the 
rewards  of  eternity,  fall  after  the  same  example  of  unbelief,  and 
thereby  forfeit  that  rest  which  Christ  hath  purchased — which 
God  hath  promised,  and  furnished  us  to  attain.  Light  is,  indeed, 
come  into  the  world,  even  the  light  of  life  ;  but  men  love  dark- 
ness rather  than  light.  The  glad  tidings  of  a  reconciled  God, 
and  an  Almighty  Saviour — of  grace  abounding  even  to  the  chief 
of  sinners,  and  of  eternal  life  assured  to  all  who  believe  and 
obey  the  gospel — are  preached  continually,  but  they  do  not 
profit  them  that  hear.  The  cause  of  this  ruinous  disregard  of 
God's  mercies  to  their  souls  is  faithfully  laid  before  them,  both  by 
precept  and  example,  and  they  hear  the  words  but  they  do 
them  not. 

Need  we,  then,  to  be  surprised,  my  brethren,  at  the  small 


THE    CAUSE    OF    UNFRUITFULNESS   IN  RELIGION.         501 

effect  which  is  produced  among  us,  by  the  preaching  of  the 
word  1  I  think  not.  The  cause  is  fully  sufficient  to  account  for 
the  effect.  Nor  need  we  wonder  at  the  disregard  of  religion, 
and  the  consequent  wickedness  which  abounds ;  but  we  may 
well  wonder,  that  where  so  much  is  known  and  felt  to  be  at 
stake,  rational  beings,  on  trial  for  eternity,  should  thus  act — 
and,  while  we  wonder,  mourn  also,  and  lament,  that  those  for 
whom  God  hath  done  so  much,  should  be  so  averse  to  do  any 
thing  for  their  own  souls. 

Would  you  profit,  then,  my  hearers,  by  the  preaching  of  the 
word  1  Bear  in  mind,  that  you  must  be  doers  of  the  loord,  and 
not  hearers  only,  deceiving  your  oimi  souls.  The  divine  blessing 
is  suspended  on  your  own  endeavours — Unto  him  that  hath,  shall 
he  given ;  hut  from  him  that  hath  not,  shall  be  taken  aioay  even 
that  which  he  hath.  Remember  that,  without  faith,  it  is  impossi- 
hle  to  please  God.  All  expectations,  therefore,  built  upon  the 
morality  of  our  lives  ;  all  sweeping  conclusions,  that  God  is 
other  than  he  is  revealed  to  us  in  Christ,  and  that  he  will  save 
us,  apart  from  the  conditions  of  the  gospel,  are  among  the  deepest 
deceits  of  the  devil,  and  the  immediate  fruit  of  unbelief  Thou 
helievest  that  there  is  one  God,  thou  do  est  well ;  the  devils,  also, 
helieve  and  tremble.  Where,  then,  is  thy  advantage,  unbeliever  1 
What  knowest  thou  of  this  awful  and  tremendous  Being,  ab- 
stracted from  his  own  revelation  of  himself?  What  doth  he 
require  of  thee  ]  How  will  he  deal  with  thee  *?  What  is  pro- 
vided for  thee  after  death  1 — Unbeliever,  canst  thou  tell  1  No  ! 
neither  canst  thou  hope.  Hope — a  good  hope  through  grace — 
springs  from  the  revealed  word — from  a  God  in  Christ,  recon- 
ciling the  world  to  himself,  and  pouring  out  his  Holy  Spirit  to 
recover  it  to  holiness  and  eternal  life.  Hope  springs  from 
endeavour,  from  exertion  to  obtain  what  we  hope  for  :  and  faith 
must  go  before  as  the  first  foundation  of  all.  To  faith  all  things 
are  possible ;  but  to  unbelief  there  is  nothing  possible,  because 
there  is  no  motive — nothing  to  excite  the  soul,  either  to  hope  or 
fear  ;  neither  is  there  any  thing  promised,  but  the  blackness  of 
darkness  for  ever. 

Have  we,  then,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  ample  foundation 
for  faith  to  rest  securely  upon  1  sufficient  motives  for  exertion  1 


502        THE    CAUSE    OF    UNFRUITPULNESS    IN   RELIGION. 

efficient  means  for  attainment  ?  Whence,  then,  this  indifference, 
this  apathy,  when  eternity  is  at  stake  1  Shall  a  preached  gos- 
pel— the  glad  tidings  of  heaven's  love  and  of  man's  redemption — 
become  the  savour  of  death  to  your  souls,  through  your  own 
neglect  ?  Shall  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross  for  your  salvation 
prove  the  ground  of  a  deeper  condemnation,  and  identify  you 
with  those  who  crucified  the  Lord  of  glory  1  O,  bethink  you, 
while  God  is  waiting  to  be  gracious  ;  while  Christ  continues  to 
intercede  for  sinners  ;  while  the  Holy  Spirit  is  present  to  lead 
you  into  all  truth  ;  and  while  a  preached  gospel  offers  its  trea- 
sures of  wisdom  and  knowledge,  of  grace  and  truth,  of  comfort 
and  encouragement,  of  pardon  and  peace,  let  faith  seize  upon 
the  rich  inheritance,  that  the  fruit  may  he  unto  holiness,  and  the 
end  everlasting  life.  Be  no  longer  ashamed  of  the  gospel,  but 
let  your  confession  of  Christ  be  openly  made,  and  your  ac- 
knowledgment of  him,  as  your  only  hope  of  mercy  and  accept- 
ance with  God,  be  manifested  by  obeying  his  commands,  and 
following  the  bright  example  he  hath  set  you  in  his  life. 

And  you,  my  brethren,  who  have  this  day  solemnly  renewed 
your  baptismal  engagements,  take  heed  to  yourselves,  that  what 
you  profess  to  believe,  be  exhibited  in  its  fruits ;  that  by  so  doing 
you  may  put  to  silence  the  ignorance  of  foolish  men,  and  your 
light  so  shine  before  them,  that  they  may  be  induced  to  choose 
that  good  part,  which  shall  not  be  taken  from  them.  Be  not 
faithless,  but,  like  the  great  father  of  the  faithful,  even  against 
hope  believing  in  hope,  set  to  your  seal  that  God  is  true.  Let 
not  a  doubting  mind  weaken  and  defeat  the  effect  of  God's  pre- 
cious promises,  and  deaden  your  endeavours  faithfully  to  fulfil 
the  obligations  this  day  undertaken.  Bear  in  mind  our  blessed 
Lord's  rebuke  to  doubting,  sinking  Peter — Othou  of  little  faith, 
wherefore  didst  thou,  doubt  ?  Let  your  profiting  ajjpear  to  all  men, 
on  the  sure  ground,  that  the  help  promised  to  enable  you  to 
work  out  your  salvation,  is  and  will  be  given  you  from  above  ; 
and  that  as  members  of  Christ,  you  shall  receive  of  that  fulness 
of  grace,  ichich  it  hath  pleased  the  Father  should  dwell  in  him,  for 
his  body  the  church.  Only  believe,  for  all  things  are  possible  to 
him  that  believeth.  The  promises  of  God  being  in  Christ,  yea, 
and  in  Christ,  amen,  to  every  one,  who,  with  hearty  repentance 
and  true  faith,  embraces  and  obeys  the  gospel. 


SERMON  XLIV. 


GRIEVING  THE  SPIRIT. 


Ephesians  iv.  30. 


"  And  giicvc  not  the  Holy  Spirit  op  God,  whereby  ye  are  sealed  unto  the  day  of 

redemption." 

A  PROVISION  of  divine  grace,  or  spiritual  assistance,  freely 
bestowed  by  Almighty  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
in  order  to  enable  fallen  creatures  to  fulfil  the  conditions  on 
which  the  rewards  of  eternity  are  suspended,  is  a  leading  and 
fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Christian  revelation.  And  as  this 
divine  help,  in  Its  commencement  and  progress  to  holiness,  is 
the  special  office  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  the  regeneration, 
conversion,  sanctification,  and  resurrection  of  believers,  are 
constantly  referred  in  the  Scriptures  to  his  operations.  Of 
these  operations,  the  history  of  Christianity,  as  presented  for  our 
learning  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles,  is  the  authentic  record. 
From  this,  we  must  not  only  derive  the  belief  of  the  doctrine, 
but  learn,  also,  in  what  manner  we  must  apply  ourselves,  to  ob- 
tain this  assistance,  and  how  we  are  to  ascertain  Its  presence 
and  effects.  And  for  both  these  essential  purposes,  we  are 
amply  furnished,  my  brethren.  In  those  Scriptures,  ivhich  are 
given  by  insph'alion  of  God,  and  are  able  to  make  us  icise  unto 
salvation,  through  faith,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  for  we  there 
read,  that  God  hath  promised  his  Holy  Spirit  to  all  that  ask  it 
In  fervent  prayer,  and  that  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  in  all 
goodness,  righteousness,  and  truth. 

On  a  subject,  however,  of  such  importance  to  our  present 
comfort  and  eternal  welfare,  as  that  divine  help,  without  which 
we  can  do  nothing  towards  the  improvement  and  perfection  of 
our  moral  nature,  God  hath  been  graciously  pleased,  not  only 
to  give  us  the  most  satisfactory  Information  of  the  fact,  but  to 
add  thereto,  outward  and  sensible  assurances  to  our  faith  in  his 
promises,  by  the  sacraments  of  the  gospel. 


504 


GRIEVING    THE    SPIRIT. 


In  our  original  dedication  to  God,  accordingly,  in  the  sacra- 
ment of  baptism,  this  indispensable,  supernatural  assistance  is 
certified  to  our  senses  by  "  an  outward  and  visible  sign,  ordained 
by  Christ  himself,  as  a  means  whereby  we  receive  the  same, 
and  a  pledge  to  assure  us  thereof."  Hence,  the  sacramental 
character  of  the  ordinance,  in  representing  to  our  senses  the 
mystery  of  our  ingrafting  into  Christ,  and  being  made  parta- 
kers of  his  Spirit  ;  thus  giving  to  faith  that  additional  assurance 
which  is  furnished  by  the  personal  application  of  a  general 
promise,  and  the  "personal  undertaking  of  a  common  obliga- 
tion. Much,  my  brethren,  depends  upon  the  view  we  take  of 
the  gospel,  as  a  message  from  God  to  mankind  in  general ;  and 
of  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel,  as  connected  with  the  promises 
therein  contained.  For,  however  true,  however  attractive  in 
its  promises,  and  full  of  comfort  and  hope  in  its  discoveries,  it 
is  but  a  speculation  of  the  intellect,  until  personally  appropriated, 
through  its  outward  and  visible  ordinances.  These  are  the  title 
deeds,  as  it  were,  by  which  this  rich  provision  of  the  love  of 
God  towards  the  world  at  large,  is  specially  conveyed  and 
made  over  to  each  individual  who  is  called  to  the  knowledge  of 
this  grace,  and  accepts  the  invitation  of  the  gospel.  By  the 
undertakir  •  of  the  Son  of  God  for  this  sin-ruined  world,  called 
in  Scripii.  the  grace  given  us  in  Christ  Jesus  before  the  icorld 
began,  God  is  enabled  to  offer  terms  of  reconciliation  and  for- 
giveness to  sinners,  promises  of  favour  and  reward  to  believers, 
and  to  supply  the  disabilities  consequent  on  original  sin  with 
renewed  powers  of  spiritual  capacity  ;  and  as  these  are  derived 
from  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  therefore  it  is,  that  the 
gift  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  as  the  root  and  spring  of  all  spiritual 
attainment,  is  bestowed  and  certified  in  that  ordinance  in  which 
we  solemnly  undertake  the  obligations  of  the  gospel.  Thus  is 
the  religion  we  profess  a  reasonable  service.  Almighty  God,  of 
his  mercy  and  goodness,  supplies  our  lost  ability  by  the  renewal 
of  spiritual  strength,  and,  therefore,  requires  our  duty  ;  of  his 
Infinite  wisdom  he  certifies  his  promise  of  this  grace  to  our 
senses,  by  an  outward  and  visible  act  of  the  most  solemn  and 
influential  character,  thereby  rendering  to  faith,  as  the  evidence 
of  things  not  seen,  an  assurance  which  it  could  not  otherwise 


GRIEVING  THE  SPIRIT.  505 

have,  and,  to  the  exertions  and  obedience  of  redeemed  sinners, 
a  stimulous,  a  support,  a  confidence,  which  leads  to  victory 
over  sin,  to  holiness  of  life,  to  eternal  glory. 

But,  my  brethren,  as  men,  though  fallen,  are  yet  moral  beings, 
and  n(^  machines  ;  as,  in  that  capacity,  they  have  to  account  to 
God,  and,  according  to  their  improvement  or  abuse  of  his  grace, 
to  be  rewarded  or  punished  everlastingly  ;  this  fundamental 
doctrine  of  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  must  be  considered, 
and  understood  by  us  in  the  nature  of  assistance  and  co-opera- 
tion, and  not  otherwise.  By  the  Holy  Ghost,  God  worketh 
in  us  to  will  and  to  do  ;  'and,  therefore,  he  requires  us  to  work  out 
our  own  salvation.  By  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  illuminates  our 
minds  with  the  knowledge  of  divine  truth,  through  the  word 
spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son  ;  and,  therefore,  requires  us  to  believe 
and  obey  the  gospel — to  come  to  the  light,  and  to  walk  in  the  lights 
as  children  of  the  light.  By  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  convinces  us 
of  sin  in  our  nature  and  in  our  actions  ;  prompts  and  suggests 
in  our  hearts  serious  thoughts,  holy  desires,  good  counsels ; 
strengthens  us  to  believe,  inclines  us  to  pray,  inspires  our  peti- 
tions, and  answers  our  prayers  ;  and,  therefore,  requires  us  to 
follow  the  Spirit  in  his  gracious  leadings  and  teachings,  as  the 
way  to  life — the  new  and  living  way  to  the  kingdom  of  Heaven, 
which  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  has  opened  to  all  believers. . 

Thus  much  seemed  necessary  to  be  premised,  my  brethren, 
on  the  doctrine  of  spiritual  influence  in  general,  and  on  its 
special  connexion  with  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  in  order  to 
the  clearer  understanding  and  more  profitable  enforcement  of 
the  exhortation  of  my  text,  which  1  shall  now  proceed  to  explain 
and  apply. 

Jlnd  grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  whereby  ye  are  sealed 
unto  the  day  of  redemption. 

From  the^context,  it  is  evident,  that  this  exhortation  is  address- 
ed by  the  apostle  to  baptized  believers  or  professing  Christians  ; 
and  from  the  connexion  with  his  previous  admonitions  in  which 
it  stands,  it  is  equally  evident,  that  it  is  an  exhortation  to  a 
special  duty,  grounded  on  a  particular  circumstance  in  their 
spiritual  condition,  common  to  them  all  as  Christians.  From 
the  terms  in  which  the  exhortation  is  expressed,  it  is  clear,  that 

Vol.  H.— 64 


506  GRIEVING    THE    SFIKIT. 

the  particular  circumstance  in  their  spiritual  condition,  comrnoiS' 
to  them  all  as  Christians,  is  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  con- 
ferred at  baptism,  as  the  root  from  which  present  holiness,  or 
participation  of  the  divine  nature,  and  future  glory  or  eternal 
life  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  must  spring,  be  carried  on,  and 
completed.  And  from  the  whole,  the  conclusion  is  plain  and 
undeniable,  that  though  all  rightly  baptized  persons  do  receive 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  they  may,  nevertheless,  deprive 
themselves  of  the  benefits  thence,  and  thence  only,  to  be  de- 
rived ;  and,  by  neglect  and  opposition,  weary  out  the  compassion 
of  God,  and  provoke  him  to  withdraw  his  help  and  succour. 

These  inferences  from  the  text  are  supported  by  the  whole 
tenour  of  Scripture,  and  by  the  whole  structure  of  Christianity^ 
as  the  religion  of  fallen  sinners  restored  to  a  state  of  trial,  and 
to  be  dealt  with  hereafter  according  to  their  improvement  or 
abuse  of  the  things  freely  given  them  of  God.  As  spiritually 
dead,  they  must  be  spiritually  revived  and  quickened,  previously 
to  any  just  demand  from  them  of  religious  duty  ;  nor  is  a  state 
of  trial  even  conceivable  of  such  a  creature  as  man  fallen,  with- 
out  this  previous  interposition  of  supernatural  power.  On  the 
other  hand,  as  a  state  of  trial  involves  both  failure  and  success, 
and  accountable  conduct  involves  freedom  of  action,  the  assist- 
ance given  to  mankind,  in  order  to  the  performance  of  reward- 
able  duty,  is  precluded  from  whatever  is  necessitating  and  com- 
pulsory. An  action  being  no  otherwise  moral  than  as  it  is  free, 
the  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon  the  hearts  and  lives  of 
men  cannot  be  divested  of  this  character  without  cutting  up  all 
religion  by  the  roots. 

Had  this  sin-ruined  world  been  allowed  to  continue  to  this 
day  without  the  provision  made  for  its  restoration  by  the  under- 
taking of  the  Son  of  God,  as  revealed  in  the  gospel,  a  state  of 
trial  would  have  been  impossible,  because  nothing  but  failure 
could  have  ensued.  In  like  manner,  were  it  the  nature  of  that 
divine  assistance,  which  God  hath  vouchsafed  to  fallen  man  in 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  it  could  not  be  resisted  and 
defeated,  trial  would  be  equally  out  of  the  question,  and  the 
retributions  of  justice  and  judgment,  as  applied  to  moral  conduct, 
interdicted  and  precluded. 


6RIEVING    THE    SPIRIT.  50T 

That  this  view  of  the  subject  is  the  only  Scriptural  and  prac- 
tical one,  is  confirmed  to  us  both  by  the  letter  of  Scripture  and 
by  the  entire  structure  of  the  religion  we  profess,  as  will  be 
evident  from  the  following  considerations  : 

With  the  predictions  of  the  Messiah  by  the  prophets,  were 
connected  the  predictions  of  a  larger  as  well  as  a  more  general 
outpouring  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  The  prophet  Joel,  in  particu- 
lar, was  inspired  to  describe  that  new  dispensation  of  religion 
under  which  a  full  measure  of  divine  assistance  should  be 
bestowed  upon  men.  JJnd  it  shall  come  to  pass  afterward,  says 
the  Almighty,  that  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh,  and 
your  sons  and  your  daughters  shall  prophecy  ;  and  also  upon  the 
servants,  and  upon  the  handmaids,  in  those  days  will  I  pour  out 
my  Spirit.  Of  this  prediction,  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  the 
exact  fulfilment ;  and  the  fact,  as  then  witnessed  to  their  senses, 
formed  the  argument  with  which  St.  Peter  reached  the  hearts  of 
three  thousand  of  his  hearers,  and  converted  them  to  the  faith. 

On  this  promise,  thus  fulfilled,  Christianity  is  constructed. 
On  additional  power  being  conferred  to  understand  and  apply 
the  spiritual  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  men  are  called  upon  and 
exhorted  to  believe  and  obey  its  life-giving  precepts.  And  on 
their  restored  competency  to  receive  or  reject  it,  are  the  awful 
sanctions  of  everlasting  life  or  eternal  death  reserved,  to  be 
applied  by  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  according  to  the 
choice  they  shall  now  make. 

We  speak  not  to  merely  rational  beings,  when  we  warn  them 
to  repent  and  believe  the  gospel ;  but  we  address  ourselves  to 
rational  beings,  furnished  by  the  goodness  of  God  with  a  higher 
principle  than  reason,  even  with  such  a  measure  of  the  Spirit 
OF  God,  as  puts  life  or  death,  heaven  or  hell,  on  their  own  de- 
termination, according  to  the  conditions  of  the  gospel.  Nor 
yet,  when  we  warn  sinners  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  do 
we  speak  to  mere  machines,  upon  whose  natures  an  unchange- 
able necessity  is  impressed  by  their  Maker  ;  but  to  moral  beings 
who  are  restored  to  freedom  of  choice,  by  the  regenerating 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  only  as  such  capable  of  praise 
or  blame,  of  reward  or  punishment.  On  this  ground,  our  Lord 
addressed  the  Jews  before,  and  his  apostles  the  gentiles  after, 


508  GRIEVING    THE     SPIRIT, 

the  day  of  Pentecost.  On  this  ground,  the  ministers  of  Christ 
address  themselves  to  all  descriptions  of  men.  To  the  Heathen 
and  the  unbaptized,  they  propose  the  gospel  and  its  fuller  mea- 
sure of  spiritual  succour  in  the  words  of  St.  Peter  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost — Repent  and  be  baptized,  every  one  of  you,  and  ye  shall 
receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  He  that  believeth  and  is 
baptized  shall  be  saved.  To  the  baptized,  who  walk  after  the 
course  of  this  world,  they  address  the  solemn  warning,  that 
they  are  doing  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace — that  they  are 
accounting  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  they  are  sanctified^ 
an  unholy  thing — that  they  are  crucifying,  to  themselves,  afresh, 
the  Son  of  God,  and  putting  him  to  open  shame.  They  caution 
them,  that  God  hath  threatened  that  his  Spirit  shall  not 
always  strive  with  man — that  it  would  be  better  for  them,  never  to 
have  known  the  way  of  righteousness,  than  to  depart  from  the  holy 
commandment  delivered  to  them — that,  if  they  querich  the  Spirit, 
it  will  be  impossible  to  renew  them  again  to  repentance.  And,  by 
these  commanding  motives — by  the  long  suffering  of  God,  and 
the  worth  of  eternity — they  exhort  all  such  persons  to  repent  and 
be  converted  ;  to  turn  from  the  error  of  their  ways,  and  to  walk  in 
newness  of  life  ;  to  seek  the  Lord  in  his  pardoning  mercy,  before 
their  day  of  grace  is  expended,  and  the  door  barred  against  them 
for  ever. 

And  to  Christians — to  baptized  believers,  the  ministers  of 
Christ  address  those  encouraging  exhortations,  which  are  de- 
rived from  so  effectual  a  helper  as  the  Holy  Ghost.  God 
worketh  in  you  to  will  and  to  do  ;  therefore,  work  out  your  own 
salvation,  with  fear  and  trembling.  Ye  have  received,  not  the  spirit 
which  is  of  the  ivorld,  but  the  Spirit  ivhich  is  of  God  ;  therefore, 
groto  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.  Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  the  temple  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which  is  in  you,  ivhich  ye  have  of  God  1  therefore, 
glorify  God  in  your  body  and  in  your  spirit,  ivhich  are  God's. 

Thus  do  all  the  obligations  of  religious  duty  meet  every  class 
and  condition  of  mankind,  on  the  ground  of  renewed  ability 
imparted  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  sent  down  from  heaven  to  abide 
with  the  Church  for  ever.  And  thus  is  it,  indeed,  that  reason- 
able service  which  all  are  commanded  to  render  unto  their  God 


GRIEVING    THE    SPIRIT.  609 

and  Saviour  ;  and  for  the  neglect  of  which,  as  there  can  be  no 
reasonable  excuse  offered,  so  neither  can  there  be  any  rational 
hope  of  escaping  the  vengeance  threatened  against  all  those 
who  carelessly  neglect  to  stir  up  the  gift  that  is  in  them,  and  by 
continuing  in  sin,  quench  the  Spirit,  and  drive  him  from  them 
for  ever.  And  very  remarkable  it  is,  my  brethren,  and  well 
worthy  your  most  serious  consideration,  that,  as  the  renewal  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  in  fallen  men  is  the  foundation  of  all  religious 
requirement  from  them  ;  so  is  the  assurance  that  we  possess 
this  gift  of  grace,  exclusively  referred  to  our  baptism.  From 
the  obligations  entered  into,  and  the  promises  made  and  sealed, 
in  this  sacrament,  all  Christian  instruction,  exhortation,  and 
hope,  takes  its  rise  ;  and  this  so  strictly,  that  there  is  not  an 
example  of  Christian  duty  required,  or  of  Christian  hope  given, 
except  of  and  to  baptized  persons.  The  first  word  of  this 
salvation  addressed  to  mankind,  is,  Repent,  and  believe  the 
gospely  for  God  hath  appointed  a  day  in  the  which  he  will  judge 
the  icorld  in  righteousness.  Now  the  gospel  declares,  that  except 
a  man  be  born  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  see  the  king- 
dom of  God.  The  gospel,  therefore,  being  set  up  in  the  world, 
and  its  administration  commenced,  the  next  command  is. 
Repent  and  he  baptized,  every  one  of  you,  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ,  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  And  this  command  being  obeyed,  a  new 
state — a  new  relation  to  God,  commences  ;  to  which  are  given 
exceeding  great  and  precious  promises,  both  for  the  life  that 
now  is,  and  for  that  which  is  to  come  ;  and  in  which,  the  Spirit 
OF  God  is  the  root  from  which  all  holy  desires,  all  good  coun- 
sels, and  all  just  works  do  proceed.  We  are  baptized  in  the 
name  of  the  Father  ;  for  the  adoption  of  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  most  high  God — Because  ye  are  sons,  God  hath  sent  forth 
the  Spirit  of  his  Son  into  your  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father ; 
wherefore  thou  art  no  more  a  servant,  but  a  son ;  and  if  a  son,  then 
an  heir  of  Gob  through  Christ.  We  are  baptized  in  the  name 
of  the  Son,  for  the  atonement  made  for  sin  by  his  death  upon 
the  cross — Knoio  ye  not,  that  so  many  of  us,  as  were  baptized  into 
Jesus  Christ  were  baptized  into  his  death?  In  whom  ice  have 
redemption  through  his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins.     Blot- 


SIO  CRIEVING    THE    SPIRIT. 

ting  out  the  handwriting  of  ordinances  that  was  against  us,  ivhich 
toas  contrary  to  us ;  and  took  it  out  of  the  way,  nailing  it  to  his 
cross.  We  are  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  for 
the  renewal  of  spiritual  life  in  our  souls,  and  for  the  resur- 
rection of  our  mortal  bodies  from  the  dead.  JVot  by  ivorks  of 
righteousness  which  we  have  done,  hut  according  to  his  mercy,  he 
saved  us ;  by  the  loashing  of  regeneration,  and  reneivirig  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Hereby  know  ice  that  we  dwell  in  him,  and  he  in 
«s,  because  he  hath  given  us  of  his  Spirit.  But  if  the  Spirit  of 
Him  that  raised  up  J esvs  from  the  dead,  dwell  in  you,  he  that 
raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead,  shall  also  quicken  your  mortal 
bodies,  by  his  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you. 

And  now,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  we  are  prepared  to 
understand  and  apply  the  exhortation  of  my  text,  and  to  per- 
ceive and  feel  the  infinite  importance  of  the  obligations  we  have 
come  under  in  our  baptismal  dedication  to  God  ;  and  the 
unspeakable  value  of  the  heavenly  privileges  thereby  conferred 
upon  us. 

»Bnd  grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  whereby  ye  are 
sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption. 

And,  first,  to  baptized  persons,  who  yet  proceed  no  farther  in 
the  Christian  life. 

Of  such  it  may  with  truth  be  affirmed,  that  their  whole  course 
betrays  such  a  disregard  for  the  salvation  wrought  out  for  them 
by  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  such  an  indifference  to  the  means 
of  grace,  and  such  a  preference  for  the  world,  as  amounts  fully 
to  the  guilt  included  in  the  expression  of  grieving  the  Holy 
Spirit.  For  what  can  be  more  grievous  and  distressing  to  an 
aiFectionate  and  generous  friend,  than  to  find  all  his  exertions 
for  our  welfare  defeated  by  carelessness,  or  contempt,  or  perverse 
opposition  1  What  estimate  should  we  form  of  the  heir  to  a 
princely  estate,  who  was  amply  furnished  by  the  owner  with  every 
appointment  suitable  to  his  condition  and  expectations,  and  yet 
estranged  himself  from  his  benefactor,  despised  his  admonitions, 
and  abused  and  prostituted  his  bounty  "?  Would  you  hesitate 
to  pronounce  such  an  one  ungrateful,  unworthy,  and  justly  liable 
to  the  forfeiture  of  present  advantages,  and  of  the  future  inherit- 
ance *?     Yet,  just  as  surely  as  this  judgment   is  the  answer  of 


GRIEVING    THE    SPIRIT.  S\i 

every  soul  that  iioav  hears  nic,  is  it  the  condemnation  of  every 
baptized  person  who  neglects  the  obligations  and  rejects  the 
privileges  of  his  covenanted  relation  to  God  ;  and  by  how  much 
the  longer  time  this  disregard  has  been  continued,  by  so  much 
the  greater  is  the  offence  and  the  danger  attending  it. 

But,  not  only  by  general  disregard  of  religion  is  the  Holy 
Ghost  grieved  and  despited.  Every  neglect  of  his  good 
motions  in  our  hearts — every  conviction  of  reason  and  conscience 
on  the  subject  of  religion,  either  resisted  or  put  off  to  a  more 
convenient  season,  is  in  a  more  especial  manner  a  grieving  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  God.  For,  as  every  conviction  of  wrong,  and 
every  excitement  to  what  is  good,  springs  from  his  holy  influences 
within  us  ;  if  these  are  treated  with  contempt,  or  disregarded  in 
operation,  or  opposed  in  conduct — as  in  an  earthly  friend  and 
benefactor  it  would  produce  concern,  regret,  sorrow,  and  indig- 
nation, proportioned  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case — in  like 
manner  is  our  heavenly  friend  and  benefactor  grieved  and  dis- 
tressed at  the  wilful  and  obstinate  neglect  of  his  help  and  counsel 
by  those  who  are  committed  to  his  sole  guidance  for  the  attain- 
ment of  eternal  life,  through  the  strait  and  narrow  way  of 
holiness. 

To  take  for  granted,  as  too  many,  alas  !  do,  that  only  by 
out-breaking  sin  and  profligate  wickedness  we  grieve  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  a  most  fatal  mistake.  Such  a  course  as  this  not 
only  grieves,  but,  if  persisted  in,  quenches  and  drives  away  the 
only  help  provided  for  our  conversion  and  sanctification.  But 
the  same  consequence  is  no  less  certain  to  the  more  orderly  and 
moral,  who  advance  no  farther  in  the  cultivation  of  religion  than 
external  respect  for  its  forms.  As  the  Holy  Spirit  will  not 
dwell  with  the  soul  polluted  with  sin,  so  neither  will  he  always 
continue  to  strive  with  those  who  neglect  to  stir  up  the  gift  that 
is  in  them.  The  outbreaking  sinner  may  be  abandoned  earlier 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  but  not  more  certainly  than  the  careless 
neglecter  of  his  gracious  motions  in  the  heart,  whether  these 
shall  be  produced  by  the  secret  suggestions  of  thought  and  medi- 
tation, or  by  the  more  direct  convictions  of  the  conscience  from 
the  word  of  God.  To  resist  them — to  put  them  off  till  to-mor- 
row— to  stifle  and  drown  them  in  the  cares   and  dissipation* 


6[%  GRIEVING    THE    SPIRIT. 

of  the  world,  is  just  as  effectual  to  drive  the  Holy  Ghost  from 
his  temple,  as  a  course  of  open  and  actual  sin.  For,  the  mani- 
festation of  the  Spirit  is  given  to  every  man  to  profit  withal.  It 
is  the  rich  talent  of  heaven's  grace  which  must  be  improved  or 
forfeited  ;  and  when  finally  removed  can  never  be  restored. 

Secondl}',  to  professing  Christians. 

That  by  such  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  may  be  grieved  and 
offended,  the  text  gives  us  sufficient  warning,  my  brethren,  for 
the  exhortation  is  addressed  exclusively  to  them. 

Greatly,  therefore,  are  we  concerned  to  watch  against  every 
approach  to  what  may  incur  this  guilt,  for  it  is  by  small  inroads 
that  the  enemy  of  souls  gains  his  advantage  over  the  believer. 
Whatever,  then,  has  a  tendency  to  impair  the  influence  of  reli- 
gion in  our  own  hearts,  is  calculated  to  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Of  this  description  is  all  over-engagement  with  the  business  of 
the  world  ;  all  unlawful  conformity  with  its  customs  and  ways. 
Whenever,  therefore,  these  are  allowed  to  interfere  with  our 
religious  duties,  whether  public  or  private  ;  when  they  occupy 
that  portion  of  our  thoughts  which  was  once  given  freely  to  God  ; 
when  they  render  seasons  of  devout  retirement  wearisome  and 
dull ;  when  these  seasons  are  observed  rather  from  duty  than 
delight ;  when  our  spirit  is  more  lively  in  the  world  than  when 
retired  with  God  ;  then  may  we  well  take  the  alarm  that  we  have 
declined  from  our  first  love — that  in  something  we  have  grieved 
the  good  Spirit,  and  apply  ourselves  earnestly  and  faithfully  to 
regain  his  blessed  presence.  And,  as  this  presence  is  no  other- 
wise to  be  known  by  us  than  by  the  fruitsof  the  Spirit  in  our 
lives,  fervency  and  frequency  in  prayer,  diligence  and  engage- 
ment in  all  our  duties,  with-  increasing  love  to  God,  form  the 
true  standard  by  which  to  determine  it ;  and  as  these  are  in  us, 
and  abound,  may  we  rejoice  in  his  holy  comfort,  or,  with  strong 
crying  and  tears,  deplore  the  sin  which  hath  driven  him  from  us, 
and  implore  his  return.  As  the  condition  on  which  we  receive 
this  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  all  the  other  mercies  of  God, 
is  improvement  and — the  promise  is  sure,  that  unto  him  that  hath, 
shall  he^given — growth  in  grace  is  not  only  a  duty,  but  a  test, 
to  which  to  bring  our  spiritual  condition;"  and,  according  as 
honest   self-examination  shall  enable  us  to  ascertain  advance- 


GRIEVING    THE    HOLY    SPIRIT.  513 

ment  or  decline  in  the  divine  life,  may  we  conclude  that  we 
grieve  or  gratify  the  Holy  Spirit. 

That  the  exhortation  of  my  text  as  applied  to  professing 
Christians,  is  to  be  referred  rather  to  their  private  and  personal 
condition,  than  to  their  public  and  visible  subjection  to  the 
gospel,  must  be  evident  from  the  consideration  that  it  is  not 
against  open  and  palpable  sin,  as  grieving  the  Holy  Ghost, 
that  they  are  exhorted.  This  would  have  vacated  their  claim 
altogether  to  be  considered  as  Christians.  It  therefore  refers 
to  that  more  private,  less  discernible,  but  equally  if  not  more 
efficacious  determination  of  spiritual  condition,  which  is  evi- 
denced by  this  the  presiding  principle  of  personal  religion — by 
what  is  more  particularly  between  God  and  our  own  souls,  the 
hidden  man  of  the  heart.  It  will,  indeed,  show  itself  outwardly 
in  the  observance  of  all  the  commandments  and  ordinances  of 
the  Lord  ;  but  it  will  not  be  satisfied  with  this  :  it  will  look,  and 
it  will  strive  for  that  consolation  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  is  the  sure  fruit  of  sincere  private  devotion,  and  public 
profession  of  the  faith  of  the  gospel. 

Where  these  unite,  Christians  are  an  epistle  of  Christ,  to  be 
read  of  all  men.  They  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  their  Saviour,  and 
promote  the  glory  of  God  in  the  advancement  of  religion  in  the 
world.  They  fulfil  their  high  calling.  They  icalk  in  the  Spirit. 
The  Spirit  of  God  ivitnesseth  with  their  spirit,  thai  they  are  the 
children  of  God.  They  grow  in  grace  until  ripe  for  glory.  They 
pass  to  that  immortality  of  blessedness  of  which  the  seal  of  the 
Spirit,  impressed  at  baptism,  is  the  earnest,  and  of  which  no 
power  can  divest  them  but  their  own  personal  guilt  in  grieving 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  and  doing  despite  to  the  Spirit  of 
grace. 

And  may  God  grant  that  this  feeble  attempt  to  instruct  and 
warn,  be  accompanied  with  that  blessing  which  shall  make  it  a 
word  in  season  to  those  who  are  present ;  that  his  glorious  name 
may  be  exalted,  not  only  by  our  professed  subjection  to  the 
gospel,  but  by  those  fruits  of  righteousness  which  are  by  Jesus 
Christ  to  the  praise  and  glory  of  God. 


Vol.  II.— 65 


SERMON    XLV. 


rHE    ORIGIN    AND    USE    OF    WORLDLY    AFFLICTIONS. 


Job  v.  6i  7. 

"  Although  affliction  cometh  not  forth  of  the  dust,  neither  doth  trouble  spring  out! 
of  the  ground  ;  yet  man  is  born  unto  trouble,  as  the  sparks  fly  upward." 

Common  experience,  my  brethren,  confirms  the  truth  of  the 
latter  clause  of  my  text,  and,  by  this  proof  of  a  common  lot  and 
condition  in  life,  establishes  the  testimony  of  Revelation  to  our 
common  origin  and  common  guilt,  as  sinners  both  by  nature  and 
practice,  and  to  the  wise  and  gracious  purpose  of  that  state  of 
probation  which  the  love  of  God  hath  granted  us,  through  the 
mediation  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Redeemer.  And  reason  might 
instruct  us,  upon  due  reflection,  that,  as  no  effect  can  possibly  be 
without  its  cause,  none  of  the  afflictions  which  befal  mankind  in 
the  present  life,  are  the  effects  of  blind  chance,  or  of  a  fatal 
necessity ;  but  that  they  are  all  under  the  direction  and  control 
of  that  infinite  wisdom,  and  all  pervading  goodness,  which  gov- 
erns the  universe  ;  and  are  intended,  in  the  design  of  his  Provi- 
dence, for  our  good. 

A  state  of  probation  necessarily  includes  variety  of  condition 
and  qualifications  in  those  who  are  subjected  to  it,  as  well  as  of 
failure  and  success  in  the  best  laid  and  most  industriously  pur- 
sued schemes  of  woiklly  happiness  and  enjoyment.  In  these, 
the  race  is  not  always  to  the  sivift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strongs 
neither  yet  bread  to  the  xoise,  nor  yet  riches  to  men  of  under' 
standing,  nor  yet  favour  to  men  of  skill ;  but  there  is  a  con- 
troling  Providence,  in  whose  hand  second  causes  are  often 
turned  round  from  their  usual  direction,  and  overthrow  the 
expectations  built  up,  too  exclusively,  perhaps,  upon  their 
operation.  In  this,  as  in  all  the  appointments  of  God  concern- 
ing us,  there  is  a  lesson  of  wisdom  and  instruction — of  comfort 
and  consolation,  which  we  would  do  well  to  learn,  my  brethren 
and  hearers.  For  surely  I  look  upon  none  who  are  entitled  to 
say,  Affliction  cannot  reach  me  :  I  am  fortified  against  trouble  : 


THE    ORIGIN    AND    USE    OF    WORLDLY    AFFLICTIONS,      515 

disappointment  is  shut  out  from  my  scheme  of  success  and  hap- 
piness in  life  !  Alas  !  do  I  not  rather  look  upon  many  who 
have  drank,  and  are  even  now  drinking,  of  that  bitter,  but  whole- 
some cup,  which,  by  calling  us  off  from  present  delights,  and 
turning  memory  back  upon  our  sins,  becomes  an  advocate  for 
God,  and  gives  the  soul  an  opening  to  retrace  her  way  to  him  ! 

That  infinite  wisdom  doeth  nothing  in  vain,  and  that  infinite 
goodness  intends  the  real  benefit  of  his  creatures  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  his  fatherly  Providence,  is  the  sure  ground  on  which 
it  is  our  duty  to  submit  with  resignation  to  his  holy  will,  and  to 
endeavour  to  improve  the  afilictions  wherewith  he  sees  fit  to  try 
and  chasten  us  to  the  gracious  purpose  for  which  they  are 
appointed  :  and  as  this  may  be  comprised  under  the  four  follow- 
ing particulars,  I  shall  endeavour  thus  to  apply  them. 

First,  to  teach  humility  and  inspire  a  just  sense  of  our 
own  nothingness. 

Secondly,  to  lead  us  to  repentance  for  our  past  sins. 

Thirdly,  to  wean  us  from  the  love  of  this  present  evil  world, 
and  from  dependance  on  its  perishing  delights. 

Fourthly,  to  try  our  faith — to  improve  our  Christian  graces, 
and  perfect  our  souls  for  the  presence  of  God. 

Jllthough  qffiicUon  cometh  not  forth  of  the  dust,  neither  doth 
trouble  spring  out  of  the  ground;  yet  man  is  born  unto  trouble,  as  the 
sparks  fly  upward. 

I.  First,  one  end  of  God's  sending  afilictions  upon  men,  is,  to 
teach  them  humility  and  inspire  a  just  sense  of  their  own 
nothingness. 

Every  view  we  can  take  of  the  condition  of  man  demon- 
strates that  there  is  no  place  for  pride  to  be  entertained.  De- 
rived from  the  dust,  and  returned  to  it  again  ;  his  life  short  at 
best,  and  uncertain  in  its  whole  continuance ;  his  knowledge 
limited  ;  his  power  circumscribed  ;  his  faculties  depraved,  and 
his  heart  corrupted,  what  has  he  to  be  proud  of  ?  Yet  what 
fruit  of  sin  is  more  conspicuous  in  his  fallen  nature,  than  the 
workings  of  this  corruption,  in  disregard  of  God,  and  insolent 
contempt  of  his  fellow  creatures  ;  in  the  swelling  self-impor- 
ance  of  prosperity,  and  the  indignant  rejection  of  adversity  ? 
The  wicked,   through  the  pride  of  his  countenance,  will  not  seek 


516        THE    ORIGIN    AND    USE    OF   WORLDLY    AFFLICTIONS. 

after  God,  says  the  Psalmist ;  and  to  this  as  to  its  main  cause, 
may  be  traced  the  ungodliness  of  the  prosperous  and  those  who 
flourish  in  the  things  of  this  world.    To  such,  therefore,  adversity 
is  the  only  remedy — the  only  thing  that  can  teach  them  the  folly 
of  their  way,  by  striking  away  the  prop  on  which  they  lean, 
and  showing  them  practically  how  every  way  insufficient  and 
insecure  their  dependance  is  ;  and  thereby  admonishing  them  to 
build  on  a  better  foundation.     And  not  only  to  the  profane  and 
open  despisers  of  religion,  who  set  their  hearts  upon  the  world, 
are  afflictions  the  only  remedy  that  can  reach  their  case  with 
any  reasonable  hope  of  effect ;  but  such  is  the  deceitfulness  of 
men's  hearts,  that  even  in  those  who  are  religiously  disposed, 
and  in  those  who  make  a  profession  of  religion,  a  continued 
course  of  uninterrupted  prosperity  is  apt  to  foster  the  pride  that 
is  forgetful  of  God — that  hardens  the  heart,  and  perverts  the 
mind;    against  which   evil  God   hath   wisely   appointed   that 
mixture  of  blasted  expectations  and  blighted   prospects,  which 
constitutes  the  afflictions  of  the  present  life,  and  is  ordered  and 
directed  by  his  gracious  Providence  to  bring  men  to  a  right  sense 
of  themselves,  and  of  their  dependance  upon  him ;  to  humble  their 
pride ;  to  remind  them  of  their  own  weakness  and  infirmity ;  and 
to  put  them  upon  a  serious  consideration  of  their  true  interests, 
as  probationers  for  eternity.     As  it  is  the  natural  tendency  of 
worldly  success,  and  worldly  delights,  to  blind  the  mind  to  spiri- 
tual things,  and  to  increase  the  power  of  every  corrupt  pro- 
pensity of  our  fallen  nature  ;  and  as  our  gracious  God  is  not 
willing  that  any  should  perish — affliction,  in  its  various  grades  of 
disappointment,    sorrow,   suffering,   pain,    and    sickness — is   a 
necessary  ingredient  in  the  moral  government  of  the  world,  and 
is,  therefore,  called  in  Scripture,  the  discipline  and  instruction 
of  the  Lord.     But  it  is  an  instruction,  which  we  must  not  only 
receive,  but  consider  and  apply,  if  we  would  profit  by  it ;  other- 
wise it  serves  only  to  stupify  and  harden,  and,  not  unfrequently, 
to  drive  the  rebellious  sufferer  into  the  deep  inipiety  of  charging 
God  with  cruelty  and  injustice.     The  pride  that  is  not  subdued 
by  adversity — the  spirit  that  is  not  broken  by  the  rod  of  afflic- 
tion— the  heart  that  is  not  humbled  under  such  admonition  from 
the  providence  of  God,  must  be  left  to  its  own  devices,  and  be 


THE    ORIGIN    AND    USE    OF    WORLDLY  AFFLICTIONS.      517 

forsaken,  and  given  over  to  work  out  that  overwhelming  load 
of  never  ending  misery  and  despair,  from  which  it  could  neither 
be  drawn  by  cords  of  love  nor  be  deterred  by  the  infliction  of 
suffering.   Yet  how  transient,  generally  speaking,  is  the  effect  of 
this  great  moral  weapon,  upon  the  conduct  of  men  !     How  like 
the  early  cloud  and  the  morning  dew  are  the  humbling  thoughts, 
and  the  good  resolutions,  and  the  thankful  acknowledgments 
which  the  anguish  of  a  sore  bereavement,  or  the  distress  of  a 
severe  worldly  loss,  have  prompted  and  drawn  forth  in  the  hour 
of  calamity  !     How  quickly  are  the  vows  then  made  forgotten, 
and  the  respite  then  granted  overlooked  !     Who  cannot  call  to 
mind  the  instance  in  which  this  is  true  of  himself?  And  must  not 
then  the  stroke  be  repeated  1     If  God  hath  not  given  us  over 
to  a  reprobate  mind,  must  not  some  severer  blow  from  his  hand 
be  hanging  over  usl     Yes,  and  there  is  but  one  way  to  avert  it; 
and  that  is,  to  let  past  afflictions   and  present   mercies  now  do 
their  office,  and  humble  us  under  the  mighty  hand  which  holds 
the  issues  of  life  and  of  death,   and   controls  the  changes  and 
chances  of  this  shifting  world.     Sure  we  may  be,  if  we  have 
faith  only  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  that  whatever  our  heavenly 
Father  sends  us  must  be  good  for  us.     Let  us,  then,  search  for 
the  good  that  is  hidden  under  his  chastenings,  and  we  shall  find 
it  in  that  humble   and   lowly  heart  in  which  God   delights  to 
dwell ;  that  resigned  spirit  to  which  he  grants  the  consolations 
of  heavenly  comfort,    and   that  holy  hope   which   waits  with 
patience,  and   endures   with   constancy  those   light  afflictions, 
which  are  the  bitter,  but  wholesome  admonUion  of  the  Lord. 

H.  Secondly,  another  end  of  God's  sending  afflictions  upon 
men,  is,  to  lead  them  to  repentance  for  their  past  sins. 

Repentance  is  that  state  of  mind,  which  is  truly  alive  to  the 
heinous  nature  of  sin  as  an  offence  against  God,  and  sincerely 
engaged  to  avoid  the  commission  of  it,  and  subdue  its  power  over 
the  corrupt  and  perverted  faculties  of  a  fallen  nature.  As  such, 
it  is  that  state  of  mind,  that  disposition  of  the  soul,  to  which 
every  person  capable  of  reflection  and  conscious  of  sin  should 
strive  to  bring  himself ;  because  it  is  the  indispensable  condition 
of  obtaining  the  favour  of  God  and  the  promises  of  the  gospel ; 
for  except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish. 


518         THE  ORIGIN  AND  USE  OF  WORLDLY  AFFLICTIONS. 

When,  therefore,  we  reflect  on  the  usual  consequences  of 
worldly  prosperity,  or  of  over-engagement  in  those  pursuits 
which  lead  to  it,  we  must  see  at  once  that  no  condition  can  be 
more  adverse  to  the  entertainment  of  religious  truth.  When  a 
wicked,  that  is,  an  irreligious  man,  prospers  in  all  liis  worldly 
affairs,  and  his  designs  are  followed  with  constant  success  ;  when 
he  is  able  to  gratify  all  his  appetites,  and  to  indulge  himself  in 
the  enjoyment  of  ease  and  pleasure,  or  even  to  anticipate  in  his 
thoughts  the  time  when  this  shall  be  in  his  power  ;  it  is  no 
wonder  he  should  forget  God,  and  lean  more  and  more  upon 
himself.  Is  not  this  great  Babylon  that  I  have  builded  ?  said 
Nebuchadnezzar  in  the  pride  of  his  heart ;  and  is  not  this  the 
secret  thought  of  many  besides  the  Heathen  king  %  In  the 
intoxication  of  success,  conscience  is  perverted  or  silenced  in 
the  worldly  minded  man  ;  the  serious  exhortations  of  religion,  if 
he  venture  at  all  to  hear  them,  are  unheeded,  while  he  says  to 
his  soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years,  take  thine 
ease,  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry.  Now  in  this  condition — and  it  is 
that  of  many,  of  many  too,  who  are  neither  great  nor  increased 
in  goods,  but  whose  hearts  are  glued  down  to  the  world — in  this 
condition,  what  remedy  can  be  applied  but  the  rod  only  1  The 
greatest  blessing — the  strongest  proof  of  the  mercy  of  God 
towards  such  persons  is,  the  sending  upon  them  some  great 
affliction,  some  arresting  and  awakening  judgment,  which,  like  a 
severe  medicine  in  a  very  dangerous  distemper,  may  rouse  them 
from  their  lethargy,  may  oblige  them  to  consider,  and  thus  lay 
the  foundation  for  repentance,  and  engage  them  in  the  care  of 
their  souls.  This  is  the  true  purpose  of  every  dealing  of  God 
with  his  creatures.  His  goodness  as  well  as  his  severity  is 
intended  to  lead  men  to  repentance  ;  nor  is  the  latter  ever  re- 
sorted to  until  the  former  is  disregarded.  God  doth  not  willingly 
affiict  the  children  of  men ;  but,  like  a  tender  father,  reserves  the 
rod  as  his  strange  work,  as  his  wise  and  salutary  appointment 
for  their  good. 

If  afflictions  be  thus  fitted,  when  duly  applied,  to  reclaim  the 
sinner  from  the  folly  of  his  way,  much  more  are  they  suited  to 
convince  good  men  of  their  failings,  to  make  them  more  sensi- 
ble of  their  errors,  to  bring  them  to  a  closer  self  examination, 


THE  ORIcaN  AND  USE  OF  WORLDLY  AFFLICTIONS.         519 

and  to  a  more  perfect  repentance  and  amendment.  The  very 
best  of  us,  my  brethren,  are  far,  very  far,  from  being  what  we 
should  be,  what  we  profess  to  be.  Nay,  we  know  not  thoroughly 
what  manner  of  spirit  we  are  of,  or  what  great  imperfections 
lie  hid  in  the  mazes  of  our  corrupt  hearts  ;  and  it  is  by  afflictions 
wisely  ordered,  that  these  are  discovered,  that  they  may  be 
amended.  Every  serious  Christian  can  say  with  David,  It  is 
good  for  me  that  I  have  been  afflicted ;  and  it  is  only  when  thus 
applied  that  afflictions  are  sanctified  to  us,  and  strength  given  from 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  bear  up  under  them,  and  to  derive  comfort 
from  them.  A  rebellious  spirit  under  the  chastening  of  affliction 
is  like  a  wild  beast  caught  in  a  net ;  he  struggles  and  rages 
against  the  enclosure,  but  the  affliction  holds  him  fast,  and 
becomes  stronger  ;  he  bites  the  cords,  but  he  sees  not  the  mighty, 
though  invisible  hand  which  spread  the  net,  nor  yet  the  gracious 
purpose  wherefore  he  is  thus  visited.  Not  so  the  Christian. 
He  knows  it  is  the  Lord,  and  he  bends  low  before  his  Father's 
displeasure.  He  feels  the  stroke,  but  he  kisses  the  rod.  He 
looks  carefully  for  his  offence ;  he  amends  it,  and  treasures  up 
the  correction  against  its  repetition.  Thus  he  can  say  with 
David,  Before  I  was  afflicted  I  went  astray ;  hut  now  have  I  kept 
thy  ivord. 

For  this  reason  it  is,  that  the  afflictions  and  other  sufferings 
God  sends  upon  his  people  and  servants,  are  declared  in  Scrip- 
ture to  be  marks  of  his  love  and  care  towards  them.  We  are 
chastened  of  the  Lord,  says  St.  Paul,  that  ive  should  not  be  con- 
demned icith  the  world ;  and  our  Lord  himself  declares,  As  many 
as  I  love,  I  rebuke  and  chasten ;  be  zealous,  therefore,  and  repent. 
In  the  very  nature  of  things,  afflictions  cannot  but  be  grievous 
and  painful,  when  they  are  actually  upon  us  ;  but  the  end  they 
are  intended  to  answer — the  great  advantage  to  be  derived  from 
them,  by  religious  improvement — though  it  cannot,  perhaps, 
bring  us  to  desire  them ;  yet  is  it  amply  sufficient  to  produce 
submission  under  them,  thankfulness  for  them,  and  a  diligent 
application  of  them  to  God's  gracious  purpose  in  sending  them. 
And,  as  this  is  to  be  gathered  from  the  particular  circumstances 
of  the  case,  we  see  in  this  the  wisdom  of  the  appointment. 
Affl-iction  makes  even  the  most  thoughtless,  serious ,  and  it  is 


520     THE    ORIGIN    AND    USE    OF    WORLDLY    AFFLICTIONS. 

in  seasons  of  adversity,  that  the  voice  of  conscience,  unheeded 
in  the  hurry  of  business  and  in  the  whirl  of  pleasure,  is  most 
likely  to  be  listened  to — to  point  to  the  very  cause  and  occasion 
of  the  chastening,  and  to  prompt  to  repentance,  and  amended 
life. 

III.  Thirdly,  another  end  of  God's  afflicting  men,  is,  to  wean 
them  from  the  love  of  this  present  evil  world,  and  from  depend- 
ance  on  its  perishing  delights. 

The  Scriptures  are  in  nothing  more  earnest,  than  in  warning 
Christians  against  the  dangerous  influence  which  present  and 
sensible  things  exert  against  the  spirit  and  the  power  of  reli- 
gion. Being  contrary  the  one  to  the  other,  the  conflict  is  per- 
petual, nor  can  it  be  ended  but  by  the  victory  of  one.  To 
reconcile  them,  and  give  to  each  what  it  claims,  is  impossible  ; 
and,  in  the  attempt,  millions  have  lost  themselves  for  ever,  and 
millions  are  yet  willing  to  make  the  perilous  adventure.  JVb 
man  can  serve  two  masters ;  where  one  is  present  and  visible,  and 
the  other,  though  not  absent,  is  invisible  ;  where  one  holds  out 
his  rewards  to  the  senses  and  to  present  enjoyment,  and 
the  other  offiers  chiefly  what  is  future — far  distant — unknown 
to  sense,  and  discernable  only  by  faith  ;  the  very  attempt  to 
serve  both,  is  proof  that  the  world  is  already  preferred.  Were 
there  nothing,  then,  equally  present  and  sensible  with  the 
enjoyments  of  the  world — nothing  to  come  practically  in  aid  of 
faith,  and  remind  us  of  our  true,  though  invisible  master — 
nothing  to  prove  the  promises  of  the  one  we  have  preferred  false 
and  deceitful — the  corruption  of  nature  would  yet  further  pre- 
vail against  the  influence  of  religion,  and  the  god  of  this  world 
triumph,  in  the  mastery  of  his  temptations.  But  afflictions — 
thanks  be  to  God — afflictions  in  all  their  varied  shapes,  disap- 
pointments, losses,  sufferings,  sorrows  from  many  sources — all 
come  in  aid  of  the  truth  of  God,  and  of  our  immortal  souls ; 
and  by  stripping  the  mask  from  the  promises  of  the  world,  by 
proving  their  inability  either  to  arrest  or  repair  the  sorrow  of 
the  heart,  bring  deliverance  from  the  snare  of  their  enchant- 
ment. 

We  know,  indeed,  and  we  profess  to  believe,  that  the  promises 
of  the  world  cannot  be  permanent.     We  have  seen  them  fail 


tHE    ORIGIN    AND    USE    OF    WORLDLY    AFFLICTIONS.       52l 

Others,  at  their  utmost  need,  and  death  will  finally  break  the 
most  sure  possession  of  them.  Yet  all  this  is  insufficient  to  over- 
come the  delusion — experience  only,  can  prove  their  emptiness  ; 
and  suffering  must  teach  the  obstinate  to  build  upon  a  surer 
foundation.  How  many  have  cause  to  thank  God  that  he 
hath  thus  dealt  with  them,  and,  by  domestic  affliction  or  worldly 
loss,  opened  their  eyes  to  see,  and  their  hearts  to  feel,  that  they 
were  building  on  the  sand  and  leaning  on  a  broken  reed  1  To 
how  many  has  the  hour  of  worldly  calamity  proved  the  season 
of  reflection  and  returning  to  God  1  And  to  how  many  has 
continued  adversity  been  the  wholesome  medicine  that  resisted 
the  influence  of  the  world,  and  proved  the  health  of  the  soul  1 
Well  do  we  know,  my  brethren,  that  there  is  nothing  more 
hurtful  to  the  progress  of  religion  than  much  engagement, 
even  with  the  lawful  business  of  life  ;  insensibly  almost,  but  too 
surely,  it  usurps  the  place  of  better  things,  and  damps  the 
ardour  of  the  soul  in  its  aspirations  after  God.  It  intrudes 
upon  the  time  devoted  to  meditation  and  prayer,  and  distracts 
the  thoughts  in  the  exercise  of  devotion.  The  thorns  and 
briars  choke  the  seed  ;  but  God,  in  his  mercy,  sends  some  afflic- 
tion, some  loss,  some  startling  providence,  and  the  spell  is 
broken — reflection  succeeds — repentance  brings  forth  its  fruits, 
and  greater  watchfulness  teaches  so  to  use  this  ivorld,  as  not 
abusing  it.  Thus  do  we  perceive  how  the  various  disappoint- 
ments, losses,  and  sufferings  of  the  present  life,  work  together 
in  weaning  us  from  the  world,  by  proving  its  utter  inability  to 
secure  to  us  its  own  promises — to  comfort  us  under  their  priva- 
tion, or  to  restore  the  breach  which  God  hath  made  in  their 
possession.  But  it  is  a  work  to  which  we  must  be  parties,  my 
brethren,  by  serious  consideration  ;  by  watchfulness  and  care, 
in  following  their  wise  direction  ;  and  by  thankful  submission 
to  their  salutary  correction. 

IV.  Fouiihly,  another  end  of  God's  affecting  men,  is,  to  try 
their  faith — to  improve  their  Christian  graces,  and  perfect  their 
souls  for  the  presence  of  God. 

As  the  improvement  or  abuse  of  the  present  life  will  form 
the  basis  of  our  future  existence,  it  is  only  by  trials  suited  to 
the  various  conditions  of  our  being,  that  any  discrimination  of 

ToL.   II.—66 


d22       THE    ORIGIN    AND    USE    OF    WORLDLY    AFFLICTIONS. 

moral  character  can  be  made :  and  as  the  foundation  of  all 
religious  reliance,  and  of  all  religious  exertion,  is  faith,  or  un- 
qualified dependance  on  the  divine  veracity  ;  it  is  therefore 
consistent  with,  if,  indeed,  it  is  not  inseparable  from,  a  state  of 
retribution,  that  this  foundation  should  be  exhibited  by  its 
proper  superstructure  of  obedience  and  submission.  To  this  the 
whole  Christian  system  is  adapted  ;  and,  as  its  sanctions  are  all 
invisible  and  future.  Christians  are  said  to  loalk  by  faith  and  not 
by  sight.  Now,  whether  they  do  thus  walk,  there  are  but  two 
tests  :  one  is,  obedience  to  the  dirine  command  ;  the  other  is, 
submission  to  the  divine  will ;  and,  in  the  union  of  both  con- 
sists the  perfection  of  our  moral  nature.  But  submission  to  the 
divine  will  can  only  be  manifested  in  things  contrary  to  our 
own  will.  Afflictions  and  privations,  therefore,  are  just  as 
necessary  to  manifest  our  faith  and  reliance  upon  God,  in  sub- 
mission to  his  holy  will,  as  active  obedience  is,  to  manifest  our 
actual  subjection  to  his  righteous  government,  as  Sovereign  of 
the  universe. 

Hence,  we  learn,  my  brethren,  to  estimate  the  mixed  condi- 
tion of  the  present  life  aright,  to  discern  the  gracious  purpose 
of  those  things  which  are  grievous  to  flesh  and  blood,  and  to 
apply  them  to  the  increase  and  establishment  of  that  faith  for 
the  trial  of  which  they  are  appointed,  and  by  the  power  of  which 
only  they  can  be  supported.  The  Christian  who  has  met  the 
disappointment  of  his  fondest  earthly  hope  without  repining — 
who  has  been  smitten  in  the  affection  of  his  heart  without  mur- 
muring— who  has  endured  unjust  reproach  with  patience,  and 
pain  and  suffering  with  resignation,  looking  to  Jesus,  tJie  author 
and  finisher  of  his  faith,  presents  a  spectacle,  upon  which  hea- 
ven looks  with  approbation.  His  faith  has  overcome  the  world ; 
and  his  light  affiictions,  ichich  are  but  for  a  moment,  work  for  him 
afar  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory. 

As  faith  is  the  support  of  all  Christian  graces,  the  trials  to  which 
it  is  subjected,  by  the  afflictions  and  sufferings  of  the  present  life, 
have  a  direct  tendency  to  strengthen  and  improve  all  those  vir- 
tues which  form  the  beauty  of  the  Christian.  As  the  trial  of  our 
faith  worketh  patience,  so  doth  an  acquaintance  with  suffering 
open  the  heart  to  compassion,  and  the  hand  for  relief  A  dispo- 


THE  ORIGIN  AND    USE  OF  WORLDLY   AFFLICTIONS.        52S 

"Sitlon  naturally  tender  will  feel  for  distress  ;  and  a  bountiful  hand 
will  administer  to  the  necessities  of  others.  But  it  is  a  fellow 
feeling  with  the  occasion — the  having  drank  of  the  same  cup — 
that  draws  from  the  heart  its  holiest  sympathies — its  most  fer- 
vent prayer,  and  from  the  hand  its  most  active  and  untiring 
beneficence.  He  who  loent  about  doing  good  with  a  compassion 
unbounded,  and  a  liberality  unequalled,  was  a  man  of  sorrows 
and  acquainted  with  grief.  He  who  knew  no  sin,  who  had  no 
infirmity  to  be  purged  away,  who  needed  the  improvement  of  no 
virtue  was  yet  made  perfect  through  sufferings  :  and  through  the 
same  purification  of  the  dross  and  corruption  of  our  fallen 
nature,  must  we  pass,  if  we  would  be  like  him,  and  see  him  as 
he  is. 

Sinners  must  suffer,  my  brethren,  necessarily,  unavoidably  ; 
yet — Oh!  the  depth  of  the  riches,  both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge 
of  God — yet,  in  appointing  suffering  for  sinners  in  the  present 
life,  God,  even  the  most  merciful  God,  hath  so  ordered  it,  that 
afflictions  may  be  made  a  means  of  grace,  and  suffering  the  road 
to  glory.  J\Ian  is,  indeed,  born  to  trouble,  even  as  the  sparks  fly 
upwards;  but  through  afflictions  duly  improved,  and  trouble 
patiently  borne,  after  the  example  and  through  the  grace  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  his  soul,  that  ethereal  spark  from  hira 
who  alone  hath  immortality,  may  also  mount  upwards  to  its 
bright  and  glorious  original,  where  tears  shall  be  wiped  from  its 
eyes,  and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away  for  ever. 

To  conclude  :  Did  our  afflictions  come  forth  of  the  dust,  and  our 
troubles  spring  out  of  the  ground ;  were  there  no  other  cause 
to  produce  them,  no  other  hand  to  direct  them,  no  other  coun- 
sel to  design  them,  no  other  power  to  over-rule  and  remove 
them,  than  the  fortuitous  results  of  unintelligible  chance,  or 
the  blind  effects  of  inevitable  fate,  there  could  be  no  rational 
comfort  or  support  to  a  considerate  mind,  under  the  various 
misfortunes  and  calamities  of  life.  For  what  is  the  support  of 
the  unbeliever  in  the  day  of  adversity,  or  what  is  his  hope  when 
death  demands  his  soul  ]  His  expectations,  at  the  best,  are  slight 
as  the  spider's  web,  and  his  hope  like  the  chaff  which  the  wind 
scattereth  away  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  His  prosperity  and 
mirth  can  be  but  for  a  moment,  and  his  adversity  must  terminate 


524        THE  ORIGIN  AND  USE  OF  WORLDLY  AFFLICTIONS. 

in  despair.  For  what  support  in  the  day  of  adversity,  or  what 
hope  in  the  hour  of  death,  can  be  derived  from  fate  or  chance, 
things  which  have  no  being  1  Where  is  the  consolation  in  being 
told  that  our  miseries  arise  from  the  necessity  of  fate,  and, 
therefore,  we  must  submit  to  them  1  Where  is  the  comfort  in 
considering  that  others  perhaps  are  as  miserable  as  ourselves  ; 
and  that  it  cannot  be  long  before  all  the  calamities  of  life  will 
be  closed  by  death  1  Alas  !  for  that  misery  that  sees  no  relief 
but  death,  and  death  unattended  by  hope  beyond  the  grave  ! 
And  yet  this  is  all  the  comfort  that  infidelity  can  afford,  and  all 
the  hope  of  him  that  is  witJiout  Gop  in  the  world.  Were  there 
no  other  argument,  then,  for  religi(^n,  my  brethren  and  hearers, 
we  might  find  one  in  the  afflictions  land  sufferings  which  abound 
in  the  present  life,  and  in  the  death  which  shrouds  the  brightest 
of  its  prospects  aild  the  largest  of  its  promises,  in  the  daily 
deepening  gloom  of  its  sure  but  uncertain  approaches.  Severe 
as  these  afflictions  are  in  themselves,  without  God  they  must  be 
intolerable.  Painful  as  is  the  divorce  between  soul  and  body  by 
the  stroke  of  death,  without  God,  it  must  be  the  horrible 
despair  of  interminable  suffering  and  extinguished  hope.  The 
pretences  of  philosophy,  of  fortitude,  of  spirit,  of  despising  pain, 
and  looking  upon  death  as  merely  putting  an  end  to  our  being, 
will  then  be  found  a  vain  and  empty  delusion.  And  the  proof, 
(though  it  will  be  too  late,)  the  proof  will  then  be  found  that 
he  only  is  capable  of  any  true  comfort  and  support  under  the 
miseries  of  life  and  in  the  hour  of  death,  who  is  convinced  that 
all  things  are  directed  well  and  to  good  ends,  by  the  wise  provi- 
dence of  Almighty  God  ;  and  who,  by  a  life  of  obedience  to  his 
commands  and  cheerful  submission  to  his  will,  has  secured  the 
favour  of  the  supreme  Disposer  of  all  things. 

Learn,  then,  your  privilege,  my  dear  hearers ;  and,  as  you  can 
neither  escape  the  calamities  of  life  nor  the  penalty  of  death, 
employ  your  best  diligence  to  provide  against  both,  by  acquaint- 
ing yourselves  with  God.  He  spreads  before  you  the  counsel 
of  his  wisdom,  the  rich  provision  of  his  grace,  and  the  promise 
of  his  mercy.  He  warns  you  of  the  bitter  ingredients  that  are 
mixed  up  in  the  cup  of  human  life.  Of  this  cup  all  must  drink, 
and  some  drain  it  even  to  the  dregs.     But  the  same  God  un- 


THE  ORIGIN  AND  USE  OP  WORLDLY  AFFLICTIONS.         525 

veils  eternity  with  all  its  glories  as  the  prize  of  your  high  calling  ; 
and  wisely  and  wondrously  hath  he  wrought,  that  all  things,  even 
afflictions  themselves,  shall  icork  together  for  good  to  them  that 
love  God.  Be  ye,  then,  workers  together  with  him,  that  all  things 
may  be  yours  ;  that,  shielded  by  his  power  and  protected  by  his 
favour,  neither  tribulation,  or  distress,  or  persecution,  or  famine, 
or  nakedness,  or  perils  or  swordy  may  be  able  to  separate  you  from 
the  love  of  Christ. 


SERMON  XLVL 


THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  TO  SINNERS SACRAMENTAL, 


1  John  iii.  1. 

*'  Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us,  that  we  should  be 
called  the  sons  of  God  !" 

The  frequent  and  serious  consideration  of  the  privileges 
bestowed  upon  the  Christian  by  the  condescending  goodness  of 
God,  is  calculated,  beyond  any  other  train  of  thought,  to  engage 
the  heart,  and  fill  it  with  those  sentiments  of  love  and  veneration 
which  form  the  noblest  attainment,  and  produce  the  highest 
gratification  the  human  soul  is  capable  of  while  encumbered 
with  its  tenement  of  flesh  and  blood. 

In  like  manner,  to  meditate  on  the  awful  gulf  of  ruin  and 
despair  into  which  sin  hath  sunk  the  human  race,  and  to  con- 
trast it  with  the  gracious  and  merciful  provision  against  its  de- 
structive power  revealed  in  the  gospel,  is  efficacious,  beyond  any 
other  known  means,  to  awaken  the  sinner  to  the  enormity  of 
his  guilt  and  the  danger  of  his  condition,  to  win  him  back  to  his 
duty,  and  to  work  that  change  in  the  feelings  and  affections  of 
his  soul,  which,  by  divine  grace,  is  made  effectual  to  the  sancti- 
fication  of  his  nature. 

That  God  ivas  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself; 
that  he  hath  not  appointed  us  unto  icrath,  but  to  obtain  salvation 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ;  that  Jesus  Christ  came  into 
theworld  to  save  sinners ;  and  that  even  the  chief  of  sinners,  not 
excluding  his  very  murderers,  are  encouraged  to  come  to  him, 
and  warranted  to  hope  for  forgiveness  on  their  sincere  repent- 
ance. These,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  are  surely  glad  tidings 
of  great  joy,  calculated  to  draw  forth  Christian  thankfulness  and 
praise,  to  awaken  in  the  hardest  heart  some  sense  of  the  divine 
love  thus  manifested,  and  to  draw  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
for  life  and  salvation  those  who,  without  him,  must  perish  for 
ever. 


THr   LOVE   OF   dot)    To  SINNERS.  62T 

Behold,  then,  ichat  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed 
upon  us,  that  we  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God  ! 

There  can  be  no  question,  I  think,  that  the  apostle  here  ad- 
dresses himself  to  those  who  had  embraced  the"'  gospel,  and 
adorned  their  Christian  profession  by  a  walk  and  conversation 
in  life  conformed  to  the  rules  of  our  holy  religion  ;  of  course,  it 
is  to  the  faithful  Christian  only,  that  the  character  of  a  son  or 
daughter  of  Almighty  God  fully  applies.  And  it  is  only  by  the 
Christian,  by  the  true  believer,  that  the  character  can  be  felt 
and  valued  as  the  most  ennobling  privilege  his  nature  can  be 
raised  to.  Even  St  John  himself  seems  to  admire  at  so  exalted 
a  station  being  assigned  to  fallen  mortals.  "  Behold,"  says  he, 
as  if  lost  in  admiration — "  behold,  how  condescendingly  gra- 
cious the  Father  of  mercies  is  in  permitting  so  endearing  a 
relation  to  be  claimed  and  enjoyed  by  creatures  such  as  we 
are  !"  And  as  he  used  it  to  enforce  upon  his  hearers  a  corre- 
sponding diligence  and  faithfulness  in  all  the  duties  of  their  holy 
profession,  I  trust  it  may  be  made  profitable  to  us  also  in  the 
consideration  of  those  particulars  which  must  combine  in  us  in 
order  to  attain  the  high  distinction  of  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
living  God. 

To  this  end  I  shall  endeavour  to  show, 

First,  that  the  great  and  leading  purpose  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ  is,  to  restore  and  renew  in  fallen  creatures  the  moral 
image  and  likeness  of  God,  lost  by  original  transgression. 

Secondly,  I  shall  lay  before  you  the  proof  from  Scripture, 
that  only  to  those  in  whom  this  change  is  affected  can  the  title 
of  son  or  daughter  of  God  be  rightly  applied. 

Thirdly,  I  shall  take  notice  of  the  privileges  conferred  on 
those  who  are  thus  denominated. 

Lastly,  I  shall  point  out  by  what  means  so  great  salvation 
hath  been  wrought  out  and  procured  for  us  ;  and  close,  with  a 
suitable  application. 

Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us, 
that  we  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God  ! 

I.  First,  I  am  to  show,  that  the  great  and  leading  purpose  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ  is,  to  restore  and  renew  in  fallen  creatures 
the  moral  image  and  likeness  of  God,  lost  by  original  trans- 
gression. 


Ms  THE  LOVE    OF    GOD    TO   SINNERS. 

Just  conceptions  of  the  nature  and  properties  of  the  supreme 
Being  lead  us  assuredly  to  this,  as  the  gracious  purpose  of  the 
religion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  God  is  light,  and  in  him 
is  no  darkness  at  all,  as  the  apostle  expresses  it.  He  is  of 
purer  eyes  than  to  behold  iniquity,  and  can  have  no  fellowship 
with  unrighteousness. 

Just  views  of  the  condition  and  qualities  of  human  nature, 
show  that  it  is  the  reverse  of  the  divine  nature ;  and  in  this, 
experience,  both  of  ourselves  and  others,  confirms  the  truth  of 
revelation — Foolishness  is  bound  up  in  the  heart  of  a  child.  They 
go  astray  as  soon  as  they  be  born.  All  communion,  therefore, 
with  God  is  impossible,  without  a  change  of  nature  in  him  or 
in  us  ;  but  God  is  by  nature  unchangeable.  It  is  on  the  part 
of  the  creature,  then,  that  the  change  is  needed,  and  must  take 
place,  in  order  to  regain  his  favour  and  be  fitted  for  his.  pres- 
ence. This  is  the  basis  of  all  just  reasoning  on  this  vital  subject, 
my  friends  ;  and,  however  humihating,  cannot  be  gainsaid  with 
any  show  of  faith,  or  overlooked  with  any  hope  of  spiritual 
attainment.  As  the  sick  only  need  the  physician,  so,  likewise, 
none  but  the  lost  and  undone  look  for  the  Saviour.  Christ 
has  no  form  or  comeliness  till  the  extremity  of  this  truth  is 
brought  home  to  the  heart,  in  the  full  extent  of  its  helpless 
misery  by  nature. 

Of  what  character  the  change  must  be,  belongs  to  God  only 
to  declare.  He  is  the  being  offended  by  sin,  and  alone  entitled 
to  make  known  the  conditions  of  pardon  and  reconciliation  to 
sinners.  To  expect  his  favour,  then,  or  even  his  mercy,  upon 
conditions  of  our  own  devising,  is  not  only  folly,  but  the  most 
presumptuous  sin  which  mortals,  furnished  with  revelation,  can 
be  guilty  of. 

By  what  means  this  change  is  to  be  wrought  in  our  hearts, 
it  is  equally  the  prerogative  of  Almighty  God  to  determine. 
Sin  is  not  only  a  spiritual  offence,  manifested  by  an  outward 
action,  but  it  is  a  spiritual  death ;  the  destruction  of  the  diyine 
image,  or  moral  likeness  to  God  in  man  ;  from  which  we  have 
naturally  no  more  ability  to  recover  ourselves,  than  we  have  to 
recover  the  body  from  natural  death. 

And  it  is  not  only  his  prerogative,  but  it  is  of  his  infinite 


THE   LOVE    OF    GOD    TO    SINNERS.  529 

itiBrcy  and  compassion,  that  the  means  are  afforded  us.  Our- 
salvation,  in  all  its  provisions,  is  wholly  of  grace,  my  brethren 
and  hearers — of  the  free  and  unmerited  love  of  God  for  our 
souls,  betrayed  into  sin  and  ruin  by  the  art  and  subtlety  of  the 
great  enemy  of  God  and  man.  And  as  we  fell  through  weak- 
ness, and  not  of  malice  against  God  as  did  our  adversary ; 
therefore,  God  was  pleased  to  provide  recovery  for  us.  But  if 
the  means  of  recovery  are  refused  or  neglected,  now  that  they 
are  offered,  it  will  stamp  our  conduct  with  the  same  malicious 
character,  and  consign  us  to  the  same  interminable  torment  to 
which  our  enemy  is  reserved. 

Hence  it  is  plain,  God  being  our  teacher  by  his  word,  that  as 
the  entertainment  of  sin  vitiated  and  corrupted  our  original 
nature,  rendered  us  unfit  for  the  presence  and  enjoyment  of 
God,  and  expelled  us  from  paradise ;  return  to  his  favour,  and 
recovery  of  the  happiness  we  have  lost,  can  no  otherwise  be 
accomplished  than  by  the  destruction  of  sin,  both  in  its  love 
and  in  its  practice,  and  by  regaining  those  pure  desires  and  holy 
affections — improved  and  confirmed  by  the  duties  and  the  trials 
of  the  present  life — which  alone  can  fit  us  for  the  presence  of 
God  and  the  blessed  society  of  heaven.  The  gospel  accord- 
ingly keeps  in  view  this  great  purpose  throughout ;  and  by  every 
motive,  and  argument,  and  figure,  which  can  be  applied  to 
rational  beings  who  have  to  account  to  God,  urges,  and  exhorts, 
and  warns,  and  entreats  them  to  believe  and  obey  what  God 
hath  revealed,  as  the  fixed  and  unchangeable  condition  on  which 
eternal  life  is  to  be  obtained. 

Hence  also,  the  necessity  of  that  Indispensable  change  of  the 
heart  as  well  as  of  the  life,  which  is  expressed  In  the  Scriptures 
by  being  born  again.  As  spiritually  dead — by  nature  averse  to 
and  incapable  of  divine  and  heavenly  things — fallen  creatures 
must  be  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  their  minds,  by  the  enlightening, 
quickening,  and  convincing  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  That 
which  is  born  of  the  flesh,  is  flesh  ;  that  which  is  born  of  the  Spirit 
is  spirit,  says  the  highest  authority  to  which  man  can  bring  his 
inquiries.  By  this  new  and  spiritual  birth  then,  only,  is  it  that 
our  denomination  is  changed  from  that  o[  earthly,  sensual,  devilish, 
to  that  of  spiritual,  heavenly  minded,  and  holy  ;    and,  as  thereby 

Vol.  H.— 67 


530  THE    LOVE    OF    GOD    TO    SINNERS. 

become  partakers  of  the  divine  nature,  dignified  with  the  appella- 
tion of  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Lord  God  Almighty,  To  as 
many  as  'received  Him,  to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the  sons 
of  God  ;  even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name ;  xchich  were  bom, 
not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  ivill  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  loill  of  man,  hut 
of  God. 

Thus  clear,  express,  connected,  and  confirmed  by  experience, 
is  the  account  which  God  has  vouchsafed  to  give  to  his  crea- 
tures, in  the  Scriptures  of  truth,  of  his  purpose  and  grace  in 
Christ  Jesus.  And  as  he  hath  also  appointed  the  means 
and  directed  the  manner  in  which  they  are  to  be  sought  for 
and  applied,  by  them,  for  the  attainment  of  this  change  ;  and  as 
all,  without  exception,  are  not  only  invited,  but  commanded  to 
believe  the  gospel,  and  to  come  to  Christ  for  the  renewal  of 
the  divine  image  ;  whosoever  shall  fail  herein,  must  therefore 
fail  because  darkness  is  preferi  ed  to  light,  this  perishing  world 
to  a  heavenly  inheritance,  and  the  bondage  of  corruption,  to  the 
glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 

Neglect  of  the  gospel,  therefore,  is  the  broad  and  beaten  road 
to  destruction,  in  which  so  many  are  travelling  rapidly  to  their 
graves.  And  neglect  of  the  means  of  grace  is  the  refusal  of 
relationship  to  God,  not  only  as  involving  contempt  of  his  com- 
mand, but  as  precluding  the  possibility  of  that  indispensable 
change  of  heart,  that  birth  from  above,  without  which,  obtained 
in  the  present  hfe  and  retained  by  personal  holiness,  we  are 
warned  that  a  man  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  Gov.  And  it  ought 
to  be  a  subject  of  the  deepest  alarm  to  every  soul  who  is  placed 
within  the  reach  of  this  mighty  blessing  by  the  providence  of 
God,  who  is  yet  a  stranger  to  its  operation  and  effects.  For, 
except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  lay  before  you  the  proof  from  Scrip- 
ture, that  only  to  those  in  whom  this  change  is  affected,  can  the 
title  of  son  or  daughter  of  God  be  rightly  applied. 

In  one  sense,  my  brethren,  as  the  creatures  of  God,  the  work 
of  his  hands,  all  mankind  are  the  children  of  God  ;  and  had 
nothing  interposed  to  divide  and  separate  the  Father  from  his 
children,  this  title  would  have  been  good  and  sufficient  for  all 
the  blessings  the  nature  given  them  was  capable  ofl     But  sin 


THE    LOVE    OF    GOD    TO    SINNERS.  631 

caused  the  division  and  separation  of  this  relation  as  absolutely 
as  extinction  of  being  could  have  done.  For,  had  the  law  not  been 
found  in  the  hand  of  a  mediator,  the  continuance  of  the  human 
race  would  have  been  defeated  by  the  inlliclion  of  the  penalty 
on  the  original  transgressors.  God  is,  indeed,  the  Father  of  the 
spirits  of  all  flesh.  But  it  is  solely  through  the  undertaking  of 
his  only  begotten  Son  that  he  is  so.  Abstract  the  world  of  man- 
kind from  this  connecting  link  between  God  and  man,  deprive 
it  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  relation  of  Creator  and 
creature  is  at  once  divested  of  all  paternal  and  filial  connexion, 
and  a  race  of  sinners  are  left  under  a  hopeless  blank  of  short 
and  uncertain  existence,  terminating  in  death  and  despair. 

Through  sin,  men  are  spiritually  dead  to  God  ;  and,  as  a  dead 
child  cannot  inherit,  there  is  no  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  and  of  God  for  the  sinner.  This  the  Scriptures  set 
forth  to  us  in  every  variety  of  expression  and  figure  which  can 
impress  this  truth  upon  the  understanding  and  upon  the  con- 
sciences of  men.  Thus  St.  Paul,  writing  to  the  Ephesians,  who 
were  a  Christian  Church  gathered  from  among  the  Gentiles, 
reminds  them,  that  before  their  conversion  they  were  without 
Christ,  being  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  and 
strangers  from  the  covenants  of  promise,  having  no  hope,  and  without 
God  in  the  ivorld  ;  that  they  were  under  a  state  of  condemnation 
and  death  ;  you  hath  he  quickened,  who  were  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins.  Even  when  toe  were  dead  in  sins,  says  the  apostle, 
changing  the  person  to  denote  the  universality  of  the  condition — 
Even  when  we  were  dead  in  sins,  God  hath  quickened  us  together 
with  Christ.  To  the  Colossians,  also,  ,^nd  you,  being  dead  in 
your  sins  and  in  the  uncircumcision  of  your  flesh,  hath  he  quickened 
together  with  him,  having  forgiven  you  all  trespasses.  And  to  the 
Corinthians,  likewise,  he  asserts  the  same  truth  argumentatively, 
from  the  death  of  Christ,  Because  we  thus  jiulge,  says  this 
apostle,  that  if  one  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead. 

In  confirmation  of  this  point,  the  covenant  relation  of  believ- 
ers to  God  as  his  children,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  is  de- 
rived exclusively  from  their  new  birth  or  spiritual  regeneration. 
By  truly  embracing  the  gospel,  men  are  translated  from  this 
state  of  death,  called  the  power  of  darkness,  into  the  kingdom  of 


532  THE    LOVE    OF    GOD    TO    SINNERS, 

God's  dear  Son ;  and  the  sacrament  or  mystery  by  which  this  is 
certified  outwardly,  is  represented  as  the  burial  of  the  old  man 
or  dead  sinner  and  the  resurrection  of  the  new  man  or  renewed 
believer  and  child  of  God.  Hence  St.  Paul,  writing  to  the 
Romans,  thus  expresses  it,  Therefore,  we  are  hurled  with  him  by 
baptism  into  death;  that  like  as  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the 
dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  even  so  ice  also  should  walk  in 
neioness  of  life.  And  to  the  Colossians  in  nearly  the  same  words, 
Buried  loith  him  in  baptism,  ivherein  ye  are  also  risen  with  him, 
through  the  faith  of  the  operation  of  Gob.  And  to  the  Ephesians 
still  more  expressly,  Ye  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners,  but 
fellow  citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God  ;  and 
are  builded  together  in  Christ  for  an  habitation  o/God  through 
the  Spirit. 

In  like  manner  our  Christian  duties  are  all  exhorted  to  and 
enforced  from  the  true  intent  of  this  sacrament,  from  the  obli- 
gations then  entered  into,  and  from  the  spiritual  ability  therein 
conferred  upon  all  rightly  baptized  persons.  For  thus  St.  Paul 
argues  with  the  Roman  Christians,  He  that  is  dead  is  freed  from 
sin.  Let  not  sin,  therefore,  reign  in  your  mortal  body,  that  ye  should 
obey  it  in  the  lusts  thereof,  but  yield  yourselves  unto  God,  as  tliose 
that  are  alive  from  the  dead ;  for  sin  shall  not  have  dominion  over 
you,  for  ye  are  not  under  the  law  but  under  grace.  So  also  writing 
to  the  Ephesian  Christians,  This  I  say,  therefore,  and  testify  in 
the  Lord,  that  ye  henceforth  walk  not  as  other  Gentiles  walk,  in 
the  vanity  of  their  mind — that  ye  put  off,  concerning  the  former 
conversation,  the  old  man  ichich  is  corrupt  according  to  the  deceitful 
lusts — and  that  ye  put  on  the  new  man,  which,  after  God,  is  created 
in  righteousness  and  true  holiness.  Be  ye,  therefore,  followers  of 
God,  as  dear  children.  To  the  Colossians,  likewise.  If  ye,  then, 
be  risen  with  Christ  seek  those  things  which  are  above,  where 
Christ  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  o/God.  Set  your  affections  on 
things  above,  not  on  things  on  the  earth ;  for  ye  arc  dead,  and  your 
life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

Equally  clear  and  conclusive  is  the  testimony  of  Scripture, 
that  only  as  our  baptismal  engagements  are  fulfilled  unto  holi- 
ness of  life,  are  we  truly  the  sons  and  daughters  of  God. 

Our  Saviour    Christ   gave    himself  for  us,    that   he   might 


THE    LOVE    OF    GOD    TO    SINNERS.  533 

redeem  us  from  all  iniquity^  and  purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar 
people,  zealous  of  good  ivorks.     Where  this  purpose,  then,  is 
answered,  and  not  otherwise,  our  relation  to  Christ  by  baptism 
becomes  effectual  for  all  the  blessings   of  the  holy  covenant 
ratified  in  his  blood.      Ye  are  all  the  children  of  Gob  by  faith  in 
Christ  Jesus,  says  St.  Paul,  and  if  children,  then  heirs ;  heirs 
of  God    and  joint  heirs  loith  Christ.     But  though  it  is  thus 
expressed  in  Scripture  of  all  rightly  baptized  persons,  yet  must 
it  ever  be  taken  with  the  warning  which  our  Lord  himself  has 
given ;  for,   while  it   is   certain,    that  he  that  believeth   and  is 
baptized  shall    be   saved,  it  is   equally   certain,    that    he   that 
believeth  not,  notwithstanding   he    may  be    baptized,  shall  be 
damned.     We  read  also  of  tares  and  wheat  growing  together  in 
the  field  of  Christ  ;  of  children  of  the  kingdom,  and  children 
of  the  wicked  one,  within  the  pale  of  Christ's  visible  Church  ; 
and  our  own  experience  certifies  to  the  melancholy  truth,  that 
there  are  thousands  of  baptized  persons  who  yet  walk  accord- 
ing to  the  course  of  this  world,  in  all  manner  of  sinful  com- 
pliance with  its  wickedness.     But  such  is  not  the  spot  or  mark 
of  God's  children  ;   for  they  that  are  Christ's  have  crucified  the 
flesh  with  the  affections  and  lusts ;    and,  therefore,  if  such  persons 
continue  thus  regardless  of  their  Christian  calling  and  election, 
our  Lord  threatens  to  blot  their  names  out  of  his  book  :  and  if 
they  shall  not  be  found  Avritten  therein,  in  the  great  day  of 
eternity,   there  will  no  inheritance  be  found   for  them  in  his 
eternal  and  glorious  kingdom.     For,  ivithout  holiness — without 
a  moral  hkeness  to  God,  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord. 

IIL  Thirdly,  I  am  to  notice  the  privileges  conferred  on  those 
who  are  thus  denominated  the  sons  of  God. 

The  first  is  justification.  This  is  a  compound  term,  my 
brethren,  in  its  signification  ;  and  is  used  in  Scripture  to  express 
the  state  or  condition  of  a  truly  penitent  sinner,  believing  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  offered  in  the  gospel.  To  such  an  one, 
the  atonement  made  for  sin  by  the  death  of  Christ,  the 
cleansing  virtue  of  his  blood  shed  upon  the  cross,  and  the  infinite 
merit  of  his  spotless  righteousness,  is  his  shield  and  defence 
against  the  just  demands  of  the  holy  law  which  he  hath  broken. 
These  he  offers  to  God  by  faith,  as  his  only  plea  for  mercy  and 


534  THE    LOVE    OF    GOD    TO    SINNERS. 

forgiveness.  These,  bis  Great  High  Priest  presents  before  the 
presence  of  God  in  his  behalf;  and  he  is,  therefore,  and  by 
virtue  of  their  value  in  the  sight  of  God,  absolved  from  the 
guilt  of  his  sin,  released  from  the  claims  of  the  law  upon  his 
blood,  accounted  a  righteous  person,  and,  as  such,  accepted  of 
God.  Therefore,  being  justified  by  faith,  ive  have  peace  with  God^ 
through  owr  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ;  by  ivhom  also  we  have  access 
by  faith  into  this  grace  loherein  we  stand,  and  rejoice  in  hope  of  the 
glory  of  God.  Being  justified  freely  by  his  grace,  through  the 
redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  in  whom  ice  have  redemp- 
tion through  his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 

The  next  privilege  of  the  true  believer  is,  adoption  into  the 
family  of  God  ;  whereby,  whatever  is  provided  for  the  comfort 
and  welfare  of  the  household  of  faith  is  also  dispensed  to  him. 

In  the  Church  militant,  this  consists  in  the  succour  and  help 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  ;  the  nourishment  of  the  word  and  sacra- 
ments ;  the  enjoyment  of  God's  promises  ;  and  the  comfort  of 
Christian  fellowship,  with  growth  in  grace,  and  increasing 
desire  for  more  of  God.  In  the  Church  triumphant,  it  will 
consist  in  the  vision  of  God  in  glory  ;  in  the  constant  presence 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ;  in  the  society  of  angels,  and  of 
the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect ;  in  the  unlimited  fulness  of 
all  holy  affections  and  happy  tempers,  enjoyed  in  mansions  of 
love,  and  joy,  and  peace,  and  blessedness,  for  ever.  Jlccording 
as  He  hath  chosen  us  in  Him,  before  the  foundation  of  the  worldy 
having  predestinated  us  unto  the  adoption  of  children,  by  Jesus 
Christ,  to  himself.  Because  ye  are  sons,  God  hath  sent  forth 
the  Spirit  of  his  Son  into  your  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father. 

Another  privilege  of  the  sons  of  God  is,  sanctification  ;  which 
is  to  be  understood  of  a  state  or  condition  in  life,  and  of  the 
means  of  maintaining  it. 

The  state  or  condition  is,  separation  from  the  world  and 
dedication  to  God  ;  in  which  sense,  all  Christians,  by  virtue  of 
their  baptism,  are  a  holy  people  unto  the  Lord.  Ye  are  a  chosen 
generation,  aroyal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people,  says 
St.  Peter  :  and,  generally,  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  in  the 
epistles,  Christians  are  addressed  and  spoken  of,  collectively, 
as  saints.     This  state  or  condition  comprises,  also,  power  over 


TlIK    LOVK    Ol'    GOD    TO    SINNERS.  533 

temptation  to  sin  ;  and  on  this  are  grounded  all  the  e.xhortations 
to  Christians  to  cease  from  sin — Sin  shall  not  have  dominion 
over  yon,  says  St.  Panl ;  God  is  faithful,  who  loill  not  suffer  you 
to  be  tempted  above  what  ye  are  able.  And  St.  John  tells  us,  that 
tchosoever  is  born  of  God  doth  not  commit  sin  ;  which  is  not  to  be 
understood  of  sinless  perfection  in  any  fallen  creature,  but  of 
the  wilful  commission  and  allowance  of  any  known  act  of  sin 
and  disobedience  to  the  law  of  God. 

The  means  of  maintaining  this  condition  are,  the  clear  dis- 
coveries of  the  will  of  God,  which  every  Christian  is  furnished 
with  in  the  Scriptures,  and  which  every  Christian  should  con- 
stantly study  and  apply — For  the  grace  of  God  which  bringeth 
salvaticn  hath  appeared  to  all  men,  teaching  us,  that,  denying 
ungodliness  and  wordly  lusts,  we  should  live  soberly,  righteously, 
and  godly,  in  this  present  world.  And  with  this,  the  presence 
and  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ;  the  promise  and  participation  of 
which,  all  Christians  receive  at  their  baptism — Repent,  and  be 
baptized,  every  one  of  you,  and  ye  shall  receive  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  J^ot  by  works  of  righteousness  ichich  we  have  done,  but 
according  to  His  mercy.  He  saved  us,  by  the  washing  of  regenera- 
tion and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  whom  also,  after  that 
ye  believed,  ye  were  sealed  with  that  Holy  ^vi'rxt  of  promise. 
JSTow  we  have  received,  not  the  spirit  of  the  tcorld,  but  the  Spirit 
which  is  of  God.  Likewise  the  Spirit  also  helpeth  our  infirmities  ; 
for  we  know  not  what  we  should  pray  for  as  we  ought.  But  the 
Spirit  itself  maketh  intercession  for  us,  with  groanings  which 
cannot  be  uttered. 

The  word  sanctification  being  connected  in  our  minds  with 
the  idea  of  perfect  holiness  or  sinless  perfection — and  the  heart 
witnessing,  at  the  same  time,  how  far  short  the  best  of  us  come 
of  reaching  this  point — has  operated  against  the  true  and  scrip- 
tural meaning  of  the  doctrine,  and,  at  the  same  time,  against  the 
necessary  duty  of  understanding  and  practising  what  it  requires. 
God  hath  indeed  called  us  to  holiness  ;  but,  he  doth  not  confer 
sanctification,  as  a  particular  gift  or  special  endowment,  upon 
any  one,  in  the  ordinary  administration  of  his  grace.  He  has 
graciously  instituted' the  state  of  salvation  into  which  we  are 
called,  and  provided  the  sure  means  of  our  becoming  sanctified 


536  THE  LOVE  OF  GOD  TO  SINNERS. 

or  holy  persons^  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word.  And  it  is 
our  part,  my  brethren,  to  rejoice  and  be  thankful  for  this 
distinguishing-  privilege  ;  to  use  diligently  and  faithfully  the 
appointed  means,  in  the  full  confidence  that  his  promised  bless- 
ing will  make  them  effectual,  to  present  us  holy,  and  unblameable, 
and  unreprovable  in  his  sight,  through  the  merits  and  death  of 
our. Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

A  fourth  privilege  of  the  believer  or  child  of  God  is,  assur- 
ance or  the  abiding  icitness  of  the  Spirit,  as  it  is  expressed  in 
the  Scriptures.  As  it  is  from  the  Holy  Ghost  that  all  spiritual 
attainment  in  man  is  derived ;  so  it  is  by  him,  that  all  trust  and 
confidence  in  the  promises  of  God  is  sustained  and  upheld.  But 
this  witness  is  not  a  direct,  supernatural  communication  to  the 
believer  by  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  but  the  concurring  testimony 
of  that  Spirit  with  his  spirit  ;  and  is  consequently  the  result  of 
examination  and  comparison,  not  only  of  the  feelings,  but  of  the 
fruits  of  religion — of  the  life  and  conversation  of  the  man,  with 
the  standard,  as  contained  in  the  precepts  and  example  set  forth 
in  the  Scriptures  for  this  great  and  necessary  purpose — For  if 
our  heart  condemns  us,  says  the  apostle,  God  is  greater  than  our 
heart,  and  knoweth  all  things.  Beloved,  if  our  heart  condemn 
us  not,  then  have  toe  confidence  toward  God.  He  who  sincerely 
endeavours  and  strives  to  come  up  to  this  standard — whose 
meat  and  drink  it  is,  to  know  and  to  do  the  will  of  his  heavenly 
Father,  though  with  much  of  felt,  acknowledged,  and  bewailed 
deficiency  and  imperfection — may  safely  take  the  comfort 
of  Christian  assurance,  being  confident  that  He  who  hath  begun 
a  good  icork  in  him,  will  perform  it  until  the  clay  of  Jesus  Christ  ; 
that,  as  his  adopted  child,  God  will  never  leave  him  or  forsake 
him;  that,  as  one  of  Christ's  sheep,  who  hear  his  voice  and 
follow  him,  he  will  give  unto  him  the  blessing  of  eternal  life — 
will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day,  and  own  and  confess  him  before 
his  Father  and  the  holy  angels.  J\Iy  sheep  shall  never  perish,  says 
Christ,  neither  is  any  able  to  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand.  And, 
by  the  appointment  of  Almighty  God,  who  ruleth  over  all,  the 
work  of  righteousness  shall  be  peace,  and  the  effect  of  righteous- 
ness, quietness  and  assurance  for  ever. 

IV.  I  come  now,  in  the  last  place,  to  point  out  by  what  means 


TiiE    LOVE    01-    GOO    TO    SINNERS. 


)37 


§0  great  salvation  hath  been  wrought  out  and  procured  for  us, 
and  then  conchide. 

On  this  head,  I  thank  God,  my  hearers,  that  we  are  all  in- 
formed. It  needs  not  that  I  should  tell  you,  as  of  something 
new,  that  all  blessings  both  temporal  and  spiritual — all  favours 
and  privileges  here — all  hopes  and  expectations  for  hereafter, 
are  the  purchase  of  the  cross  of  Christ  ;  that  as  undone  sinners, 
we  have  nothing  wherewith  to  avert  the  wrath  and  propitiate 
the  favour  of  a  pure  and  holy  God  ;  and  that  there  is  none  other 
name  under  heaven  given  among  men,  whereby  ice  must  be  saved, 
only  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  of  J^azarelh.  But  greatly  is  it 
needed,  that  I  should  call  your  attention,  as  to  a  question  of  life 
and  death,  and  that  eternal  too,  to  the  use  you  are  making  of 
this  knowledge — to  the  effect  this  gracious  communication  from 
God  has  had  upon  your  hearts  ;  to  rouse  your  consciences  to 
reflect  what  the  consequences  will  be  if  you  continue  to  disre- 
gard the  solemn  vows  you  are  under  by  your  baptism — to  slight 
the  high  privileges  therein  conferred  upon  you — and  to  mangle 
the  holy  hope  which  springs  up  to  the  sinner  from  the  blood  of 
Christ,  by  a  life  of  sin  and  unconcern  for  salvation.  And 
what  argument  so  powerful  to  this  end  as  that  suggested  by  my 
text  1  What  so  likely  to  prevail  with  an  ingenuous  mind  as  the 
long-suffering  of  our  heavenly  Father,  in  continuing  to  spare, 
under  so  many  and  so  great  provocations,  and  still  keeping  the 
door  open  for  disobedient  children  to  return  and  regain  their 
place  in  his  family  1  And  this  is  yet  left  to  you,  my  unconverted 
hearers,  by  a  true  and  timely  repentance.  This  is  the  only 
privilege  you  have  not  forfeited  ;  and  it  is  that  one  by  which 
alone  the  others  can  be  regained,  and  all  the  blessings  of  God's 
house  and  family  become  your  happy  portion. 

Behold,  then,  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed 
upon  us,  that  toe  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God.  Contemplate 
the  gracious  plan  of  our  redemption  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Consider  its  suitableness  to  the  condition  of  fallen  sinners. 
Meditate  upon  the  glorious  privileges  bestowed  on  all  who 
receive  him  as  the  Lord  their  righteousness ;  and  learn  herein 
how  God  commendeth  his  love  toward  us,  in  that  while  we  were 
yet  enemies,  he  sent  his  Son  to  die  for  us. 

Vol.  IL— 68 


538  THE    LOVE    OF   GOD    TO    SINNERS. 

This,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  is  the  affecting  point  in  the 
great  work  of  our  redemption.  It  is  not  that  we  are  redeemed, 
and  heaven  once  more  opened  to  the  hopes  of  sinners  ;  but  it  is 
the  manner  of  that  redemption — the  abounding  love  manifested 
in  the  Father  surrendering  up  his  only  begotten  Son,  and  the 
Son  consenting  to  endure  humiliation  and  death,  for  the  love  of 
our  souls,  which  points  it  to  the  heart — which  melts  the  stub- 
born hardness  of  its  sinful  corruption,  and  softens  it  to  godly 
sorrow  and  sincere  repentance — which  moves  it  to  love,  to 
honour,  to  trust,  and  serve  Him,  who  so  loved  us,  as  to  bear  our 
sins  iji  his  oion  body  upon  the  cross^  that  he  might  redeem  us  to  God 
by  his  blood. 

Herein  is  love,  my  brethren,  not  that  we  loved  Him,  but  that 
he  loved  us ;  and  herein  is  displayed  the  gracious  purpose  of 
that  memorial  of  his  death,  which  he  hath  commanded  his  disci- 
ples to  celebrate,  until  he  shall  come  again  to  take  them  to  his 
heavenly  kingdom. 

God  grant,  dear  brethren  in  Christ,  that,  through  the  power 
of  his  grace,  we  may  so  discern  the  Lord's  body,  that  all  its 
holy  purposes  and  heavenly  privileges  may  be  answered  in  and 
confirmed  to  our  souls  !  And  O,  that  a  beam  from  heaven,  a 
ray  of  light  from  God's  Holy  Spirit,  may  penetrate  every 
heart,  and  light  up  in  every  bosom  a  lively  sense  of  all  that  we 
owe  to  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  that  while  we  again 
pledge  ourselves  to  him  and  to  each  other,  in  the  solemn  com- 
memoration of  his  divine  love,  we  may  so  eat  his  flesh  and  drink 
his  blood  as  to  be  filled  with  all  grace  and  heavenly  benediction, 
and  so  "  made  one  body  with  him  that  he  may  dwell  in  us  and 
we  in  him." 


SERMON  XLVII 


CAIN    AND    ABEL. SACRAMENTAL 


Genesis  iv.  3,  4,  5. 

"  And  in  process  of  time  it  rame  to  pass,  that  Cain  brought  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground 
an  oifefuig  unto  the  Lord.  And  Abel,  he  also  brought  of  the  firsthngs  of  his 
flock,  and  of  the  fat  thereof.  And  the  Lord  had  respect  unto  Abel,  and  unto  his 
offering  :   but,  unto  Cain  and  to  his  offering,  he  had  not  respect." 

All  Scripture  being  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  set 
forth  for  our  learning,  contains  in  it  all  that  can  be  needed  to 
make  us  wise  unto  salvation.  From  this  treasure-house  of 
divine  wisdom,  we  may  draw  whatever  is  profitable  for  religious 
instruction,  and,  what  should  enhance  its  value  to  us,  no  where 
else  can  we  be  sure  of  saving  truth.  For  it  not  only  compre- 
hends the  rules  and  precepts  by  which  we  should  regulate  our 
thoughts  and  words,  our  affections  and  conduct  in  this  life  ;  but, 
in  compassion  to  our  weakness,  wilfulness,  and  inadvertence,  it 
sets  before  us,  as  in  a  glass,  the  conduct  and  conversation  of 
our  kind — of  men  of  like  passions,  of  the  same  fallen  nature 
with  ourselves,  in  every  variety  of  condition,  from  the  very 
commencement  of  that  manifestation  of  mercy  and  grace  which 
it  pleased  God  to  vouchsafe  to  a  ruined,  sin-struck  race  of 
beings. 

In  the  numerous  examples  of  faith  and  holiness,  of  unbelief 
and  rebellion,  which  are  therein  recorded  for  our  warning  and 
admonition,  we  may  readily  trace  the  operation  and  effect  of 
faith  in  God,  in  obedience  to  his  word  and  commandment ;  and 
the  influence  of  unbelief  in  such  a  negligent  acknowledgment 
of  his  supreme  majesty  and  dominion,  as  leads  to  a  presump- 
tuous disregard  and  contempt  of  his  commandments,  and  of  the 
appointed  and  only  means  of  mercy  and  acceptance  for  sin- 
ners. Of  this  we  have  a  most  instructive  and  awakening  ex- 
ample given  us,  in  two  brothers,  the  first  born  of  a  race  of 


540  CAIN    AND    ABF.L. 

fallen  creatures ;  an  example,  which  I  design,  with  the  help  of 
God,  to  apply  for  the  edification  of  all  present,  and  to  the  par- 
ticular purpose  of  our  meeting  together  this  day. 

Assembled,  my  brethren,  for  the  express  purpose  of  wor- 
shipping the  God  of  our  salvation — to  offer  up  our  united  pray- 
ers and  praises  to  our  heavenly  Father — to  own  and  confess  our 
crucified  Lord,  and  to  celebrate  the  solemn  memorial  of  his 
sacrifice  and  death  for  our  deliverance  from  sin  and  death 
eternal — it  must  be  profitable  for  us  all,  to  consider  carefully 
this  earliest  act  of  religious  worship  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge,  lest  we  also  present  an  offering  to  which  God  shall 
not  have  respect.  For  we  read  in  the  text,  that  the  Lord  had 
respect  unto  Jlhel  and  to  his  offering ;  but,  unto  Cain  and  to  his 
offering,  he  had  not  respect. 

The  first  inquiry  that  starts  in  the  mind,  relative  to  this  portion 
of  Scripture,  is.  Wherein  consisted  the  difference  in  their  offer- 
ings, in  the  sight  of  God  ?  We  know  that  God  is  no  respecter  of 
persons ;  and  as  to  the  brothers,  there  is  nothing  previously 
said  to  mark  any  difference  between  them,  except  in  their  occu- 
pations, the  one  being  a  husbandman,  the  other  a  keeper  of 
sheep.  They  both  came  at  the  appointed  time  to  perform  the 
religious  homage  due  to  Almighty  God  ;  the  one  with  the  pro- 
duce of  his  field,  the  other  of  his  fold.  So  far,  there  appears 
no  difference  between  them.  Was  Cain  and  his  offering,  then^ 
rejected  because  he  was  a  wicked  man  ?  Such  a  conclusion 
would  be  hasty,  and  unwarranted  by  any  tiling  as  yet  said  in  the 
account  given  us.  On  the  contrary,  though  his  offering  was  re- 
jected, Cain  himself  was  not  yet  a  castaway  from  God's  mercy  ; 
for  we  find  the  Almighty  expostulating  with  him  for  being 
angry  with  his  brother  because  his  offering  was  accepted,  and 
reminding  him  that  there  was  yet  time  to  retrieve  his  false  step, 
and  be  reinstated  in  the  privileges  he  was  entitled  to  as  the  first- 
born— Jlnd  the  Lord  said  unto  Cain,  why  art  thou  wroth,  and  why 
is  thy  countenance  fallen  ?  If  thou  doest  icell,  shalt  thou  not  be 
accepted?  Jlnd  if  thou  doest  not  ivell,  sin  lieth  at  the  door. 
And  unto  thee  shall  be  the  excellency,  (as  it  is  in  the  mar- 
gin of  the  Bible,)  and  thou  shalt  rule  over  him.  When, 
therefore,    we   rest  satisfied  that   Cain's  offering   was  reject- 


CAIN    AND    ABEL.  "^41 


ed  because  he  was  a  wicked  man,  we  do  not  consider  the 
passage  with  sufficient  attention  ;  but  applying  what  happened 
subsequently,  and  we  know  not  how  long  afterwards,  in  the 
murder  of  his  brother,  to  what  was  previously,  and  m  itself, 
deserving  of  the  rejection  it  met  with,  we  lose  the  deep  instruc- 
tion, which,  otherwise  considered,  this  important  passage  of 
Scripture  presents  to  us. 

To  the  offering  itself,  then,  we  must  look  for  the  true  cause 
of  the  rejection  of  the  one  and  acceptance  of  the  other.     And 
to  that  plan  of  salvation  which  God  in  his  infinite  mercy  pro- 
vided before  the  world  began,  for  fallen  man,  must  we  go  for 
full  satisfaction  on  this  and  on  every  point  in  religion.     In  this 
glorious   plan  the   leading  and   most  remarkable   part  is  that 
which    marks   the     unsearchable  depth   of   the   wisdom   and 
love   of  God  our   Saviour   in  providing   a  substitute   for  the 
sinner,  able   and  willing  to  bear  the   full  infliction  of  divine 
justice,  to  suffer  the  penalty  of  the  broken  law,  and,  by  the  infi- 
nite merit  of  the  atonement  made,  pay  the  ransom  of  immortal 
souls.   In  the  fulfilment  of  this  eternal  purpose— Ms  purpose  and 
grace  given  us  in  Christ  Jesus  before  the  world  began— was  the 
gospel,  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation,  preached  to  Adam  when 
driven  from    Paradise,  in  the    promise   that   the  seed    of    the 
woman  should  bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent— that  there  should,  in 
the  fulness  of  time,  be  born  of  the  posterity  of  Eve  a  Redeemer, 
or  Deliverer,  who,  by  making  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  men, 
and  restoring  them  to  the   love   and  favour  of  their   offended 
Maker,  should  thereby  bruise  the  head,  destroy  the  power  and 
dominion,  of  that  old  serpent  the  devil,  who  had  beguiled  our 
first  parents  into  sin,  and  thereby  brought  ruin  and  death  upon 
them  and  upon  all  their  posterity.     This  is  the  ground-work  of 
all  religion,  the  only  foundation  on  which   either  worship  or 
offering  can  be  presented  to  God  on  the  part  of  man.     And  to 
keep  alive  in  the  world  the  knowledge  of,  and  preserve  a  due 
regard  to,  this  instituted  means  of  mercy,  God  was  pleased  to 
direct,  that  in  the  religious  worship  henceforth  to  be  paid  him, 
the  sacrifice  of  an  animal,  slain  by  the  shedding  of  its  blood, 
should  form  a  conspicuous  part ;  as  an  acknowledgment  of  guilt 
and  forfeited  life  on  the  part  of  the   worshipper ;  as  a  type  of 


542  CAIN    AND    ABKI.. 

that  sacrifice  lor  sin,  which  in  due  time  was  to  be  oftered  up 
upon  the  cross  ;  and  for  a  continual  remembrance  that  inthout 
shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission. 

The  rite  of  sacrifice  being  thus  established  by  divine  authority, 
as  an  integral  and  essential  part  of  religious  worship  and  the 
instituted  emblem  of  redemption  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  we 
now  see  what  constituted  the  difference  between  the  offerings  of 
the  two  brothers,  and  the  reason  why  one  was  accepted  and  the 
other  not.  We  may  now  understand  St.  Paul's  meaning,  when 
he  tells  us  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  By  faith  Mel  offered 
unto  God  a  more  excellent  sacrifice  than  Cain,  by  lohich  he  obtained 
witness  that  he  ivas  righteous,  God  tesifying  of  his  gifts.  This  it 
was,  my  brethren,  that  made  the  difference  between  his  sacrifice 
and  that  of  his  brother — the  one  offered  according  to  God's 
express  appointment,  with  faith  in  a  promised  Redeemer,  and 
from  an  humble  hope  of  being  accepted  through  his  merits, 
while  the  other  chose  to  be  religious  in  his  own  way  ;  for  we  can 
never  suppose  the  one  to  be  informed  and  the  other  ignorant  of 
what  God  had  appointed.  By  bringing  of  the  fruit  of  the 
ground  an  offering  to  the  Lord,  Cain  may  be  supposed  to  ex- 
press his  thankfulness  for  temporal  mercies  ;  but  he  showed  no 
sense  either  of  spiritual  wants  or  of  spiritual  blessings.  He  felt 
not  that  he  was  a  fallen  sinner.  He  offered  no  living  creature  as 
an  atonement  for  his  sin,  and  whose  blood  was  to  he  shed  as  an 
acknowledgment  of  the  forfeiture  of  life,  and  as  a  type  or  figure 
of  the  all-atoning  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God.  In  short,  he 
conducted  himself  in  this  solemn  duty  as  if  he  had  no  sin  to  be 
atoned  for,  no  need  of  a  Mediator  between  God  and  his  soul, 
no  faith  in  what  God  had  most  solemnly  enjoined.  Whereas 
Abel,  conscious  of  his  fallen  state  and  the  now  sinful  condition 
of  man,  gladly  resorted  to  the  revealed  means  of  mercy  and 
grace,  and  offered  a  living  creature  to  God  of  the  firstlings  of 
his  flock,  and  of  the  fat  thereof,  as  the  instituted  type  or  emblem 
of  the  Great  First-born,  through  whose  gracious  intercession  the 
life  that  had  been  forfeited  was  spared,  and  through  whose 
saving  grace  alone,  it  could  be  restored  to  a  blessed  immortality. 
Thus,  my  friends  and  hearers,  does  a  little  care  and  attention 
bestowed  on  the  word  of  God  lead  us  into  the  light  of  his  deal- 


CAIN    AND    ABEL. 


543 


higs,  all  whose  ways  with  his  creatures  arc  mercy  and  truth  ; 
while  at  the  same  time  we  are  taught  the  most  useful  and  im- 
portant of  all  lessons,  that  no  otherwise  than  as  God  himself 
hath   appointed  and  revealed  to  us  in  his  word,  can  we  perform 
any  acceptable  religious  service  ;  that  religion  in  all  its  appoint- 
ments is  of  divine  institution,  and  in  all  its  requirements  has  an 
end  and  a  purpose  in  view,  which  it  should  be  our  most  diligent 
study  to  understand  and  to  follow.    And  thus  may  we  see  (what 
1  pray  God  all  present  may  see,  and  seeing,  take  the  warning) 
in  the  persons  of  the  two  brothers,  whose  history  is  recorded  for 
our  admonition,  the  two  opposite  spirits  which  have  ever  since 
divided  the   world  between  them.     In  the  one  we  see  a  lively- 
representation  of  the  devout  and  humble   Christian,  who,  after 
all  his  most  sincere  and  diligent  endeavours  to  serve  and  please 
his  Maker,  yet  conscious  of  his  many  sins  and  short-comings — of 
his  entire  unworthiness,  in  himself,  of  the  reward  of  eternal  life, 
relies  solely  on  the  merits  of  his  crucified  Lord  for  acceptance 
with  God.     In   the  other  we  have  a  no  less  faithful  picture  of 
that  great  multitude  under  the  gospel,  to  whom  the  preaching 
of  Christ  crucified  is  foolishness — who  will  not  have  him  to 
reign  over  them,  and  neglect  altogether  that  method  of  atone- 
ment and  acceptance  through  which  only  God  hath  declared 
he  will  be  reconciled  to  sinners. 

From  this  passage  of  Scripture  we  also  learn,  my  brethren, 
the  true  nature  of  saving  faith. 

In  Abel,  we  see  it  exemplified  in  such  a  belief  of  God's  word 
as  produced  an  exact  and  ready  obedience  to  what  was  com- 
manded, with  a  steadfast  reliance  on  the  truth  of  that  promise^ 
which,  though  he  beheld  it  yet  afar  oif,  he  nevertheless  trusted 
would  be  fulfilled.  And  discerning,  as  he  was  taught,  in  the 
blood  of  the  slain  animal,  that  atoning  blood  which  cleanseth 
from  all  sin,  he  received  the  end  of  his  faith,  even  the  salvation  of  his 
soul.  And  thus  St.  Paul  sets  him  up  as  teaching  to  this  day,  and 
exemplifying  the  faith  and  obedience  required  of  Christians  ;  so 
that  by  it,  by  this  one  act,  he  being  dead,  yet  speaketJi. 

While  in  Cain,  the  same  knowledge  of  God,  and  of  the  wor- 
ship prescribed  to  fallen  man,  which  Abel  was  furnished  with — 
the  same  need  of  the  mercy  shadowed  out  by  the  vicarious 


544  CAIN    AND   ABEL. 

sacrifice  of  a  slain  aniinal,  and  promised  to  the  faithful  offerer--' 
was  made  light  of  and  perverted.  He  listened  to  the  whispers 
of  that  same  deceiver  who  had  already  ruined  his  parents,  and 
thereby  made  good  a  lodgement  in  every  human  heart — who  no 
doubt  assaulted  him  from  this  citadel  of  his  power,  with  all  the 
temptations  which  pride  could  muster  up ;  that  as  he  had  not 
sinned  after  the  similitude  of  his  father's  transgression,  the  con- 
demnation could  not,  in  justice,  extend  to  him ;  that  as  he 
had  not  as  yet  broken  any  law  imposed  by  the  Almighty,  why 
should  he  acknowledge  himself  guilty  1  And  what  connexion 
could  the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats  have  with  the  state  of  his 
soul  1  Of  what  benefit  could  a  Redeemer,  whom  he  had  never 
seen,  and  of  whom  he  felt  no  want,  or  a  salvation  so  distant  and 
obscure,  be  to  him  ?  Surely  if  he  stood  as  he  was,  and  offered 
to  the  Lord  his  Creator  the  acknowledgments  due  for  temporal 
blessings,  no  more  could  be  required  of  him  !  Alas  !  my  hear- 
ers, what  proud  and  presumptuous  reasonings  does  the  enemy  of 
souls  prompt  in  the  hearts  of  those  icho  receive  not  the  love  of 
the  truth,  that  they  may  be  saved  !  And  what  an  awful  lesson  is 
set  us  in  this  first  unbeliever  !  How  earnestly  should  deists  and 
doubters  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  self-righteous 
moralists,  ponder  and  meditate  its  weighty  warning  !  His  vain 
reasonings  led  Cain  to  worship  God  in  a  way  of  his  own  inven- 
tion ;  his  barren  faith  presented  an  unbidden  offering  ;  his  pre- 
sumptuous appearing  before  the  Lord,  without  the  appointed 
shield  of  the  Redeemer's  merits,  exposed  him  to  the  vengeance 
of  the  broken  law ;  a  merciful  call  to  repentance,  from  Him 
loho  is  not  willing  that  any  should  perish,  {If  thou  doest  well 
shall  thou  not  be  accepted  ?)  being  unheeded,  hardened  his  proud 
unbelieving  heart ;  envy,  hatred,  and  malice  took  possession  of 
his  soul,  and  the  bitter  fruit  was  a  brother's  blood  crying  from 
the  ground,  while  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  drove  the 
first-born  of  a  race  of  sinners  from  all  that  was  left  of  happi- 
ness here,  and  of  hope  hereafter,  a  fugitive  and  a  vagabond  on 
the  earth,  an  outcast  from  the  face  of  God,  a  prey  to  all  the 
horrors  of  guilt  and  despair.  Sad  but  speaking  emblem,  my 
brethren,  of  that  final  casting  away,  when  the  fearful  and  un- 
believing, and  the   abominable,  and  murderers,  and  ivhoremongers. 


CAIN    AND    ABEL. 


)45 


and  sorcerers,  and  idolaters,  and  all  liars,  shall  have  their  part  in 
the  lake  which  burns  icith  fire  and  brimstone ;  banished  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  and  the  glory  of  his  poiver  with  an  everlast- 
ing destruction. 

Fruitful  in  instruction  as  this  portion  of  God's  most  holy 
word  is  to  all  descriptions  of  persons,  and  full  of  warning  to 
those  who  in  any  manner  make  light  of  the  gospel,  or  on  any 
pretence  neglect  the  ordinances  of  God's  appointment ;  it  is 
still  more  so  to  those,  who,  led  astray  by  their  own  conceit, 
venture  to  devise  a  mode  of  their  own,  in  which  they  choose  to 
worship  God,  going  in  the  way  of  Cain,  as  St.  Jude  expresses  it. 
Here  such  might  learn,  not  only  the  great  danger  they  encounter 
of  having  their  unbidden  offering  rejected,  but  the  still  g-reater  risk 
of  being  given  over  to  the  delusions  of  the  devil,  to  blind  and  mis- 
lead them,  under  a  semblance  of  religion,  to  utter  ruin  and 
everlasting  misery  ;  while  to  the  believer,  to  the  humble  Chris- 
tian, whose  faith  stands,  not  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the 
power  of  God,  applied  through  the  written  word — who  is  con- 
tent to  take  his  religion  from  the  Bible,  and  to  be  saved,  as  God 
hath  appointed — it  is  a  lamp  unto  his  feet,  and  a  light  unto 
his  path.  From  the  issue  of  this  first  attempt  to  worship  God 
after  a  way  that  is  not  good,  because  in  opposition  to  one  that 
is  prescribed  and  commanded ;  and  from  the  many  other  in- 
stances of  a  like  kind,  recorded  in  the  history  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Church  ;  the  believer  learns  his  first  and  most  useful  les- 
son in  this  fundamental  truth — that  in  all  that  relates  to 
salvation  it  is  not  of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that  run- 
neth, but  of  God  that  shoiceth  mercy.  That,  as  religion 
hath  nothing  human  in  its  contrivance,  so  neither  is  it 
for  human  wisdom  to  alter  or  amend  its  salutary  institutions. 
Under  every  dispensation  of  God's  mercy  to  sinners,  he  per- 
ceives the  object,  the  end,  and  the  means,  to  be  the  same.  He 
therefore  diligently  applies  himself  to  the  revealed  word,  compar- 
ing spiritual  things  with  spiritual;  and  tracing  throughout  the 
whole  legal  economy  the  purpose  to  which  it  pointed — the  end 
it  was  to  answer,  he  tliankfully  embraces  that  light  which  the 
law  and  the  gospel  shed  upon  each  other ;  he  comprehends 
more  fully  the  nature  of  that  liberty  ichereioith  Christ  hath  set 

Vol.   H.— 69 


546  CA[N    AND    AKEL. 

his  discijjles  Jrt'6' ;  and,  caielul  not  to  use  his  liberly  for  an  occa^ 
sion  to  the  Jiesh,  be  cleaves  to  Christ  in  those  ordinances 
Avhich  Cpirist  himself  hath  appointed — in  the  use  and  observ- 
ance of  which  only,  can  he  either  expect  or  obtain  the  favour 
of  God.  Finding,  therefore,  in  the  Church,  ministry,  and  sacra- 
ments of  the  gospel,  the  same  instituted  means  of  grace  which 
from  the  beginning  have  pointed  to  Christ,  as  the  great  sin- 
offering  of  the  law — the  substance  of  all  its  types  and  shadows — 
the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness,  to  every  one  that  believeth — 
the  Great  High  Priest  that  is  passed  into  the  heavens,  where  he 
ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us,  and  is  able  to  save  them,  to 
the  uttermost,  that  come  unto  God  bxj  him — his  faith  is  strengthened, 
his  hope  increased,  his  charity  enlarged  ;  he  sees  that  the  pro- 
mise has  never  failed,  he  can  therefore  trust  it  for  all  that  is  to 
come,  comm,itting  the  keeping  of  his  soid  to  God,  in  well-doing, 
as  unto  a  faithful  Creator.  Thus  is  Jesus  Christ,  to  him,  the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever.  In  the  Lord  otdy  hath  he 
righteousness  and  strength,  and  finds  the  gospel  the  poiver  of  God 
unto  salvation. 

In  the  case  of  unhappy  Cain,  he  is  warned  against  giving 
heed  to  seducing  spirits,  however  plausibly  their  reasonings  may 
be  put  together,  or  however  flattering  they  may  be  to  the  pride 
of  his  fallen  nature.  He  remembers  there  is  an  enemy  within,  on 
the'  watch  to  deceive  him,  who  can  even  transform  himself  into 
an  angel  of  light.  He,  therefore,  learns  to  distrust  and  deny 
himself  He,  "therefore,  tries  the  spirits  by  the  word  of  God — to 
the  law  and  to  the  testimony,  if  they  speak  not  according  to  this 
icord,  it  is  because  there  is  no  light  in  them. 

By  the  example  of  Abel,  he  learns  with  what  temper  and 
disposition  of  soul  to  appear  before  God  ;  with  what  offerings 
to  come  into  his  courts  ;  in  whose  name  to  offer  up  his  prayers 
and  praises  ;  and  through  whom  alone  to  expect  an  answer  of 
peace.  Discerning  by  faith  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  aioay 
the  sins  of  the  world,  his  offering  is  sanctified  by  the  merits  of 
Christ.  God  hath  respect  unto  it,  and  he  also  obtains  the 
witness  that  he  pleases  God.  Thus  setting  to  his  seal  that  God 
is  true,  he  worships  him  in  the  Spirit,  rejoices  in  Christ  Jesus, 
and  has  no  confidence  in  the  flesh,  patiently  expecting  that  joyful 


CAIN    AND    ABEL.  547 

})onr  when  he  shall  join  the  general  assembly  and  Church  of  the 
First-horn,  in  singing  the  song  ofJMoses,  and  the  song  of  the  Lamb  ; 
ascribing  blessing,  and  honour,  and  glonj,  and  power,  unto  Him 
that  sittclh  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb  for  ever. 

Peculiarly  applicable  and  instructive,  my  brethren,  is  this 
passage  of  Scripture,  with  reference  to  the  more  particular 
purpose  for  which  we  are  this  day  met  together.  We,  too,  are 
come  up  to  present  an  offering  to  the  Lord.  Let  us,  therefore,  take 
heed  to  the  warning  given  us,  lest  coming  empty,  we  go  away 
unfilled  ;  lest  offering  an  unbidden  sacrifice,  we  draw  down  upon 
ourselves  the  anger  of  the  Lord,  provoking  him  to  take  away 
his  Holy  Spirit  from  us,  and  deliver  us  over,  like  Cain,  to 
the  devices  and  desires  of  our  own  sinful  hearts,  to  the  snares 
and  delusions  of  the  enemy  of  our  souls. 

Furnished,  as  we  are,  with  the  clear  discoveries  of  the 
gospel,  with  the  substance  to  which  all  the  types  and  shadows 
of  the  law  pointed ;  having  our  faith  confirmed,  and  our  hope 
exalted,  by  the  coming  of  the  promised  seed  ;  God  having  pro- 
vided and  furnished  us  with  a  Lamb  for  a  burnt-offering  in  the 
body  of  Christ,  once  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many,  and 
having  called  us  to  be  partakers  of  the  benefits  of  this  unbloody 
sacrifice  ;  let  us  bear  in  mind  wherefore  Christ  hath  thus  suf- 
fered for  us,  and  what  we  are  pledged  to  by  thus  confessing  him 
before  men  as  our  only  hope  and  means  of  salvation.  Let  us 
look  to  those  who  have  gone  before  us,  whom  God  hath  set 
forth  as  examples  of  that  faith  and  patience  which  inherited  the 
promises  ;  Avho,  though  they  saw  them  only  afar  off,  yet  u^ere 
persuaded  of  them  and  embraced  them,  confessing  that  they  icere 
strangers  and  pilgrims  on  the  earth.  The  flaming  altar  and  the 
bleeding  victim  are  no  more  indeed  required  from  us  ;  but  the 
same  sense  of  guilt  and  danger,  the  same  need  of  an  Almighty 
Saviour,  the  same  reliance  on  the  atoning  merits  of  the  blood  of 
Christ,  the  same  faith  in  his  will  and  power  to  save,  the  same 
obedience  to  and  observance  of  the  duties  enjoined,  which  were 
manifested  by  them,  must  now  accompany  our  offering,  that 
God  may  have  respect  to  us  and  to  it.  Thus  shall  we  rightly 
discern  the  Lord's  body  broken  for  our  sinful  bodies,  apply  his 
shed  blood  to  the  cleansing  of  our  polluted  souls,  and  reap  the 
fruit  of  pardon  and  peace— the  increase   of  faith,  hope,  and 


548  CAIN    AND    ABEL, 

charity.  For  the  Christian  sacrifice  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  offered  up  in  this  sacrament,  is  to  every  worthy  com- 
municant the  pledge  of  God's  mercy  through  the  satisfaction  of 
Christ's  death,  rehed  upon  for  the  pardon  of  repented  sin,  and 
also  a  means  of  grace  for  renewed  spiritual  strength.  It  is  the 
blood  of  sprinkling  which  speaketh  better  things  than  the  blood 
of  Abel.  For,  as  that  cried  unto  God  from  the  ground  for 
vengeance  on  the  murderer,  this  crieth  continually  unto  God 
for  mercy  on  the  sinner  who  flees  to  it  for  refuge.  Let  us,  then, 
my  brethren  in  the  Lord,  lift  the  eye  of  faith  to  him  who,  by  his 
one  oblation  of  himself  once  offered  upon  the  cross,  made  there  a 
full,  perfect,  and  sufficient  sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satisfaction,  for 
the  sins  of  the  whole  icorUV;  and,  laying  upon  the  altar  of  our 
hearts  the  Lamb  without  blemish  and  without  spot,  let  us 
approach  this  solemn  commemoration  of  our  Lord  in  the 
humble  confidence  that  with  such  sacrifices  God  is  well  pleased  ; 
entreating  him  for  the  love  of  his  dear  Son,  to  "  forgive  us  all 
our  sins,  negligences,  and  ignorances,  and  to  endue  us  with  the 
grace  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  to  amend  our  lives  according  to  his 
holy  word ;"  beseeching  that  merciful  and  compassionate 
Saviour,  who  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  power  of  the  grave,  to 
redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  to  "  grant  us  in  this  world  the 
saving  knowledge  of  his  truth,  and  in  the  world  to  come  life 
everlasting." 

A  few  words  by  way  of  application,  will  impress  upon  all 
your  hearts,  I  trust,  the  infinite  importance  of  a  diligent  and 
careful  attention  to  God's  holy  word. 

In  that  word  it  is  written  of  Abel  that,  he  being  dead  yet 
speaketh.  May  not  the  same  be  said  of  Cain,  my  friends  1  Abel 
speaketh  by  example  of  faith  and  obedience  ;  Cain  by  example 
of  unbelief  and  rebellion.  And,  alas  !  are  not  multitudes  directly 
interested  in  the  solemn  warning  given  them  in  his  miserable 
fate,  seeing  they  stand  in  the  same  danger?  How  many,  (I 
speak  of  those  under  the  gospel,)  how  many,  more  perverse 
even  than  him,  make  no  acknowledgment  whatever  of  God  as 
the  Almighty  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  universe,  by  any  mode  of 
worship  either  public  or  private  1  What  multitudes  among  us 
make  no  account  of  the  mercies  revealed  in  the  gospel,  of  the 


CAIN    AND    ABEL.  549 

salvation  it  offers  ?  In  this  Christian  assembly,  what  a  small 
proportion  entertain  even  an  outward  regard  for  the  unspeak- 
able interests  of  their  immortal  souls.  How  numerous  are  they 
who,  though  they  know  the  truth,  yet  love  it  not ;  though  they 
hear  the  warning,  yet  heed  it  not ;  but  go  off,  one  to  his  farm 
and  another  to  his  merchandise — this  to  his  profession  and  that 
to  his  pleasures.  Yea,  what  numbers  even  in  the  professing 
world,  skim  over  the  word  of  life,  and  take  only  what  suits  their 
indolence  or  their  convenience,  setting  their  own  careless 
thought  in  opposition  to  the  clearest  declarations  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  Scriptures,  and  forsaking  the  fountain  of  living 
waters,  hew  out  for  themselves  cisterns  of  salvation — but,  alas  ! 
they  are  broken  cisterns  which  can  hold  no  water — building  on 
the  sand,  and  with  untempered  mortar,  a  wall  of  defence  for 
their  souls — part  Scriptural,  and  part  the  invention  of  man.  Oh ! 
that  they  would,  all  of  them,  carefully  consider  and  meditate 
upon  this  fruitful  passage  of  Scripture,  this  double  warning  of 
God's  word,  teaching  by  example  as  well  as  by  precept,  and 
weigh  well  the  dreadful  consequences  which  followed  this  first 
departure  from  God  in  his  appointed  worship ;  that  they 
would  understand  that  Cain  became  not  envious  and  a  murderer 
until,  in  the  pride  of  his  heart,  he  thought  himself  wiser  than 
God,  and  sufficient  to  prescribe  a  mode  of  worship  for  himself— a 
self-righteous  intrusion  into  God's  almighty  prerogative  of  ap- 
pointing the  conditions  and  the  means  of  salvation  for  sinners  ; 
that  even  then  he  was  not  given  over  to  a  reprobate  mind,  until 
he  had  slighted  an  expostulation  on  his  folly,  and  a  call  to 
repentance  !  O,  bethink  you,  my  careless  hearers,  how  often 
God  hath  expostulated  with  you  by  his  ministers,  by  his  word, 
and  his  Spirit  ;  and  learn  to  fear  that  though  he  is  long- 
suffering,  he  will  in  no  wise  let  you  go.  Oh  !  that  those  who 
slight  altogether  the  duties  of  religion,  and  live  without  God  in 
the  world,  would  hear  the  deep  exclamation  of  one  of  Cain's 
descendants,  and  with  him  lay  to  heart,  that  if  Cain  shall  be 
avenged  sevenfold,  truly  shall  such  be  avenged  seventy  and  seven 
fold  !  Oh  !  that  those  who  pretend  to  believe  the  gospel,  and 
yet  slight  the  means  and  mercies  it  presents — who  talk  of  the 
merits  of  Christ,  and  yet  are  strangers  to  the  appointments  of 


550  CAIN    AND    ABEL. 

Christ,  would  now  learn,  that  a  Christian  hope  is  only  given  to 
a  Christian  life  ;  that  the  hope  of  the  hypocrite  is  like  the  spider's 
wehylike  the  chaff  10 hich  the  wind  scatterelh  aiv ay  from  over  the  face 
of  the  earth.  Oh  !  that  the  professing  world  would  from  hence 
learn,  that  though  there  is  a  way  that  seemeth  rigid  unto  a  man, 
yet  the  ends  thereof  are  the  ivays  of  death — that  not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  Christ,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  but  he  only  that  doeth  the  will  of  God,  as  revealed  in  his 
word  and  enjoined  in  his  most  holy  worship.  And  Oh  !  that 
we  may  all  search  deeper,  see  clearer,  and  live  holier  ;  that 
God  may  have  respect  unto  us  and  unto  our  offerings  of  wor- 
ship and  praise  ;  that  he  may  guide  our  feet  into  the  way  of  life, 
and  bring  us  to  his  everlasting  rest,  with  righteous  Abel,  and  all 
the  blessed  company  of  heaven,  to  glorify  his  matchless  grace 
to  us  ward  in  Christ  Jesus,  world  without  end.     Amen, 


SERMON  XLVIW. 

THE    STATE    OP    THE    DEPARTED. A    FUNERAL    DISCOURSE' 

Job  xiv.   14. 
^'  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  agahi  V 

Did  the  inquiry  contained  in  my  text  embrace  only  a  common 
interest,  little  need  would  there  be,  my  brethren  and  hearers,  to 
put  to  you  a  question,  which  all  present  are  competent  to 
answer.  Did  the  death  of  our  friends  and  relations  involve  in  it 
the  gloomy  and  comfortless  thought  of  extinguished  being,  small 
reason  could  there  be,  for  assembling  together  on  such  melan- 
choly occasions  ;  and  still  smaller  the  expectation,  that  from  so 
common,  so  inevitable,  and  so  frequently  recurring  a  circum- 
stance, any  thing  of  hope  or  comfort,  of  warning  and  instruction, 
could  be  drawn.  They  who  are  bereaved  by  death  of  an 
object  of  affection  and  regard — the  mourning  husband — the 
disconsolate  wife — the  afflicted  father — the  weeping  mother — 
the  helpless  orphan  and  distressed  friend — might  be  left  to 
grieve  alone,  over  blasted  hopes  and  blighted  expectations,  seeing 
no  consolation  could  be  offered,  no  comfort  derived,  no  instruc- 
tion received,  of  a  higher  grade  than  would  be  equally  applica- 
ble to  the  beasts  that  perish. 

But  when  the  answer  to  my  text,  which  by  the  gospel  we 
are  all  enabled  to  give,  leads  us  beyond  the  grave,  to  the  confines 
of  an  eternal  world,  where  death  shall  no  more  be  the  object 
either  of  hope  or  fear ;  when  the  grave  of  a  fellow  creature 
utters  its  uniform  warning  to  those  who  are  expectants  of  the 
same  appointed  end,  the  purpose  for  which  we  are  met 
together  assumes  its  proper  character ;  the  sympathies  of  our 
common  nature  expand  to  the  sorrows  of  our  kind  ;  the  warn- 
ing presented  to  us  strikes  on  our  own  personal  concern  ;  and 
the  softened  heart  learns   to  realize  the  deep  and  solemn  truth 


662  THE  STATE  or  THE  DEPARTED. 

thai  it  is  belter  lo  go  lo  the  house  of  mourning,  than  to  Ihe  house 
of  feasting. 

Shall  we  then  live  again,  my  brethren  1  Shall  another  state 
of  being  bring  us  once  more  together,  to  enjoy  or  suffer  1  These 
are  questions  which  involve  whatever  can  awaken  the  attention 
and  engage  the  feelings  of  mortal,  but  intelligent  creatures ; 
and,  as  such,  form  a  suitable  subject  for  our  present  meditations. 
To  the  deceased,  these  questions  are  already  resolved.  She 
now  knows,  intimately,  the  unspeakable  things  of  the  separate 
state.  To  her,  faith  is  lost  in  sight ;  and,  we  trust,  through  the 
mercy  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  hope  has  ended  in  enjoyment. 
But  to  those  she  has  left  behind — they  are  yet  suspended  on  the 
daily  shortening  limit  of  an  uncertain  existence.  And  were  she 
permitted  to  speak  to  you,  she  would  now  unite  with  me,  in 
pressing  upon  those  who  were  dear  to  her  in  this  life,  and  upon 
all  present,  the  infinite  consequences  which  flash  upon  the  mind, 
from  this  short,  but  anxious  and  impressive  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture. We  know  that  we  live,  my  hearers.  Apprehension  and 
experience  teach  us,  that  we  have  to  die.  What  more  important 
inquiry,  then,  can  engage  our  attention,  than,  with  this  speaking 
and  afflictive  proof  of  our  common  mortality  before  us,  to  look 
into  the  grave  of  the  wife  torn  from  her  husband — the  mother 
from  her  children — the  child  from  her  parent — the  relation  from 
her  kindred,  and  ask  ourselves  the  concerning  question — If  a 
man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ? 

To  press  this  meditation  upon  you,  my  friends,  and  to  assist 
you  in  making  it  profitable,  I  shall,  in  the 

First  place,  consider  the  proofs  we  are  furnished  with,  of 
another  state  of  being. 

Secondly,  the  nature  of  that  future  state. 

Thirdly,  the  preparation  required  for  it ;  and  then, 

Conclude,  with  an  application  of  the  subject. 

If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ? 

I.  First,  I  am  to  consider  the  proofs  we  are  furnished  with, 
that  another  state  of  being  awaits  us  after  death. 

Now  these  proofs  are  derived  from  the  nature  of  the  soul , 
from  the  present  condition  of  the  world  ;  and,  above  all,  from 
the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ. 


THE    STATE    OF    THE    DEPARTED.  653 

That  rational  creatures  are  compounded  of  two  distinct 
substances,  a  material  body,  and  an  immaterial  spirit,  is  the 
experience  of  every  creature  thus  rational.  And  the  first  exer- 
tion of  thought  or  reason,  the  first  sensation  of  hope  or  fear,  the 
first  emotion  of  joy  or  grief,  did  we  endeavour  to  know  ourselves 
as  we  ought  to  do,  would  convince  us  that  we  are  thus  com- 
pounded. For  when  we  think  or  reason,  love  or  hate,  hope  or 
fear,  rejoice  or  grieve,  it  is  plain  that  it  is  not  the  body  which 
performs  these  acts.  Neither  our  limbs,  nor  our  trunk,  nor  our 
head,  nor  our  heart,  is  what  thinks  and  reasons,  wills  and 
refuses,  likes  and  dislikes,  grieves  and  rejoices  ;  but  something 
separate  from  the  body,  of  another  nature,  that  hath  its  abode 
within  it,  though  unseen  and  intangible. 

This,  perhaps,  will  be  plainer  to  your  apprehension,  if  you 
consider  that  the  body  must  be  mutilated,  and  deprived  of  all 
its  inferior  members,  yea,  may  lose  all  sense  of  feeling,  and 
power  of  motion,  as  in  the  case  of  a  general  palsy,  while  the 
immaterial  spirit  retains  its  faculties  entire.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  mind  or  thinking  faculty  may  be  entirely  useless,  while  the 
body  is  in  perfect  repair,  as  in  the  case  of  idiots  and  deranged, 
persons.  Very  various,  indeed,  are  the  degrees,  in  which  the 
soul  and  the  body  act  mutually  upon  each  other,  and  are  power- 
fully affected  the  one  by  the  other.  But  while  this  is  conclu- 
sive for  their  intimate  union,  it  is  not  so  for  their  identity. 
Indeed  the  distinction  between  them,  and  the  superiority  of 
spirit  over  matter — its  capacity  to  exist,  and  perform  its  func- 
tions, when  the  body  is  altogether  useless — is  so  plain  and  ob- 
vious, that  it  admits  the  fair  presumption,  and  affords  a  good 
reason  for  concluding,  that  it  survives  the  dissolution  of  the  body. 
The  nature  of  the  soul,  also,  confirms  this  conclusion.  That 
which  perceives  and  wills,  cannot  be  composed  of  parts.  Being 
uncompounded,  therefore,  it  cannot  be  dissolved ;  and  in  our 
meaning  of  the  word  death,  it  cannot  die.  The  objects  it  is 
conversant  with,  also  ;  the  extent  to  which  it  can  soar  in  things 
abstracted  from  matter  ;  the  speculations  with  which  it  is  fami- 
liar, when  the  body  does  not  clog  and  weigh  it  down ;  its  won- 
derful range  into  things  spiritual  and  heavenly,  unmixed  and 
eternal ;  all  these  denionstrate  a  class  of  being,  distinct  from 

Vol..  II.— 70 


554  THE  srATL  OK  THE  DEPARTED, 

any  necessary  dependance  on  animal  life.  The  body  is  aii 
instrument,  prepared  for  and  adapted  to  the  soul ;  something^ 
joined  to  it  for  a  time  ;  and  though  the  connexion  is  very  close, 
while  they  subsist  together,  yet  every  thing  we  can  observe  con- 
firms the  conclusion,  that,  when  the  body  perishes,  we  do  not, 
therefore,  cease  to  be  ;  and  as  the  soul  is  the  seat  of  conscious- 
ness, we  may  as  really  exist  after  its  separation  from  the  body 
by  the  stroke  of  death,  as  before.  The  body  gives  personality 
to  the  soul,  but  is  not  essential  to  the  exercise  of  its  peculiar 
faculties,  nor  yet  to  the  enjoyments  and  sufferings,  of  which  it 
is  capable  in  its  own  nature. 

Such  are  some  of  the  arguments,  which  serve  to  demonstrate 
the  distinct  and  independent  existence  of  the  soul  of  man  ;  and 
though  not  needed  by  those  who  have  the  benefit  of  revelation^ 
are,  nevertheless,  of  importance  to  convince  gainsayers,  by  show- 
ing the  agreement  of  revelation  and  reason,  and  thereby  endear- 
ing to  us  that  blessed  light  which  shines  upon  our  darkness, 
takes  our  shallow  reason  by  the  hand,  and  guides  it  through  all 
the  wonders  of  God's  rich  redeeming  love,  to  the  infallible 
certainty  of  that  state  of  future  being,  to  which  we  are  all 
hastening  as  speedily  as  the  flight  of  time  can  carry  us  forward. 

The  proof  of  another  state  of  being,  from  the  present  state  of 
the  world,  is  equally  conclusive. 

As  we  are  all  the  creatures  of  the  same  God,  were  we  designecJ 
for  the  present  life  only,  an  equality  of  condition  in  this  world 
would  seem  to  be  the  result  of  the  disposal  of  us  by  an  almighty, 
wise,  and  just  Being.  But  this  is  demonstrably  not  the  case, 
either  in  the  original  qualifications  of  our  minds,  or  in  the  con- 
stitution of  our  bodies,  or  in  the  circumstances  (over  which  we 
have  no  control)  under  which  we  come  into  life,  or  in  the  dura- 
tion of  our  existence.  If,  to  obviate  this  difficulty,  we  assume, 
that  the  visible  inequality  of  condition  among  mankind  is  the 
consequence  of  retribution  for  good  or  evil  conduct,  this  conduct 
must  have  been  previous  to  the  present  life,  which  involves 
the  absurdity  of  a  pre-existent  state  of  which  we  have  no  con- 
sciousness, and  under  any  circumstances  would  require  that 
prosperity  and  adversity,  enjoyment  and  suffering,  under  the 
direction  of  a  perfectly  just -Being,  should  be  in  exact  proportion 


THE  STATE  OF  THE  DEPARTED.  555 

to  individual  desert.  But  as  this  is  evidently  not  the  method  of 
that  government  under  which  we  are  found,  it  follows,  that  there 
must  be  a  future  state,  in  which  all  that  appears  unequal  in  this 
Me,  will  be  exactly  recompensed. 

From  this  conclusion  there  is  no  escape,  but  in  the  denial  of 
God,  as  the  righteous  governor  of  the  universe — no  retreat,  but 
to  the  gloomy  caverns  of  atheism,  or  to  the  grave,  as  the  impreg- 
nable prison-house  of  both  body  and  soul  for  ever.  Indeed  so 
plain  and  obvious  is  this  conclusion  to  the  natural  apprehensions 
of  all  men,  that  even  the  Heathen  world  acknowledge  it,  and 
were,  and  are,  in  no  small  degree,  regulated  by  it.  Nor  is  there 
that  being,  or  race  of  beings,  on  the  face  of  this  earth,  however 
low  and  unenlightened,  who  are  not,  to  some  extent,  under  the 
influence  of  this  universal  impression.  I  do  not,  however,  say 
that  all  have  equally  just  views  of  a  future  state,  or  are  influenced 
in  their  conduct  by  the  only  conceivable  purpose  of  such  an 
appointment  of  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of  Almighty  God. 
Sad  and  gross  are  the  perversions  of  this  truth,  though  deepest 
engraved  on  the  heart  of  man  ;  but  it  exists  and  is  acknowledged 
wherever  a  descendant  of  Adam  can  be  found.  Nor  do  I  say 
that  thei^e  never  was  an  athiest — though  I  doubt  it.  Many  have 
professed  themselves  such — betrayed  by  the  affectation  of  supe- 
rior wisdom,  or  by  the  pride  of  singularity,  to  speak  against 
their  conscience  at  the  beginning,  and  to  persist  in  it  against  the 
demonstration  of  God's  power  and  providence  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  universe,  until  he  is  provoked  to  give  them  up  to 
strong  delusion,  even  to  believing  their  own  lie  ;  as  is  the  case, 
in  like  manner,  with  those  who  neglect  or  scoff"  at  revealed  reli- 
gion, from  the  vain  imagination  that  it  marks  them  as  persons  of 
superior  discernment.  Such  commonly  go  on,  resisting  the 
better  sense  of  their  own  minds,  and  the  reproofs  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  until  they  become  seared,  as  it  were,  with  a  red-hot 
iron — callous  and  impenetrable  to  every  thing  but  the  near 
approach  of  death,  which  fearfully  convinces  them,  but  too  late, 
that  they  have  bartered  away  their  souls  for  the  vanity  of  a 
name  which  is  about  to  be  extinguished  for  ever.  Beware,  my 
dear  young  friends,  of  this  cruel  vanity,  and  remember  that  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom. 


556  THE    STATE    OF    THE    DEPARTED. 

But,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  arguments  for  a  future 
state  from  the  nature  of  the  soul,  and  the  present  unequal 
distribution  of  good  and  evil  in  the  world,  the  page  of  revela- 
tion has  removed  all  didiculty  and  doubt  from  us,  my  hearers, 
to  whom  life  and  immortality  are  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel. 
Whatever  was  probable  from  the  nature  of  the  soul ;  whatever 
appeared  reasonable  from  the  existing  condition  of  the  world  ; 
what  reason  approves  and  conscience  affirms,  is  now  put  beyond 
dispute,  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ  from  the  dead.  And 
however  dark  and  obscure  the  intimations  of  a  future  state  and 
of  a  righteous  judgment,  given  before  the  coming  of  Christ, 
may  appear  to  us,  yet  certain  it  is,  that  on  this  basis  every  dis- 
pensation of  religion  which  God  has  vouchsafed  to  the  world, 
has  been  founded  ;  and  in  all  ages,  whosoever  feared  God  and 
wrought  righteousness,  did  it  upon  the  sure  foundation,  that  God 
is,  and  that  he  is  the  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him ; 
and  that,  if  not  in  this  life,  yet  in  that  which  is  to  come,  he  will 
render  unto  every  man  according  as  his  work  shall  be. 

Upon  this  unshaken  principle  of  truth  and  justice.  Job  was 
enabled  to  bear  up  under  the  severe  trial  to  which  it  pleased 
God  to  subject  him  ;  upon  this  ground  he  was  able  to  answer 
his  own  question,  and  to  find,  in  the  answer — the  only  rational 
argument  for  patience  and  submission  under  the  affliction^  and 
privations  of  the  present  life — If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ? 
Yes,  he  shall  live  again ;  therefore,  says  Job  in  this  chapter, 
Jill  the  days  of  my  appointed  time  loill  I  wait,  till  my  change  come. 
Thou  shalt  call,  and  I  will  answer  :  thou  wilt  have  a  desire  to  the 
work  of  thy  hands.  Upon  no  other  principle,  my  friends,  has 
religion  any  claim  to  our  regard  ;  for  religion  is  only  another 
word  to  express  preparation  for  another  state  of  being.  Defeat 
or  lose  sight  of  this  primary  truth  and  the  world  becomes  a 
dark  and  dreary  prison-house,  without  a  single  ray  of  light  or 
comfort  under  its  unavoidable  miseries — a  huge  golgotha  of 
carnage,  for  Death  to  revel  in.  Without  a  reward  for  the  right- 
eous, retribution  to  the  wicked,  good  and  evil  in  human  actions, 
are  mere  arbitrary  denominations.  But  upon  the  reasonable 
and  revealed  foundation  of  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments,  faith   can   put   forth   its   mighty   energies ;    hope   can 


THE    STATE    OF    THE    DEPARTED.  55T 

invigorate  resolution  ;  chanty  can  exert  its  unfailing  Influence ; 
patience  can  have  her  perfect  work  ;  and  submission  to  the  will 
of  God  be  crowned  with  an  everlasting  recompense. 

Thus,  have  I  showed  you  the  grounds  and  reasons  on  which 
the  doctrine  of  a  future  state  is  most  surely  believed  among  us  ; 
and  thus  are  we  all  left  without  excuse,  my  hearers,  if  the  clear 
and  concurring  testimony  of  reason  and  revelation  fails  so  to 
convince  us  of  this  fundamental  truth,  as  to  bring  our  lives  un- 
der its  constant  influence.  To  believe  this  doctrine,  and  to  act 
accordingly,  is  to  dig  deep,  and  to  build  upon  the  rock  which 
cannot  be  moved  ;  while  to  neglect  it,  ar  to  entertain  it  in  the 
mind  as  a  matter  of  mere  speculation,  is  to  build  upon  the  sand 
— upon  what  will  give  way  and  deceive,  and  leave  us  without 
support,  not  only  under  the  afflictions  of  time,  but  in  that  great 
and  dreadful  day  when  the  heavens  shall  flee  aicay  with  a  great 
noise  ;  the  earth,  also,  and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall  be  burnt 
up ;  and  the  dead,  small  and  great,  shall  stand  before  God,  to 
receive  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body. 

II.  Secondly,  I  am  to  consider  the  nature  of  that  future  state. 

That  it  must  be  altogether  different  from  that  in  which  we,  at 
present,  subsist,  we  are  in  some  degree  prepared  to  apprehend, 
from  the  separation  which  takes  place  at  death  betwixt  the  soul 
and  the  body,  when  the  dust  returns  to  the  earth  as  it  was,  and 
the  spirit  returns  to  God  who  gave  it.  But  what  becomes  of  the 
spiritual  part  of  our  frame — where,  and  in  what  condition  it 
exists — can  only  be  known  from  what  God  hath  discovered  to 
us  in  his  word,  of  the  invisible  state  of  departed  spirits.  From 
revelation,  then,  we  learn  that  the  state  of  death  consists  of  two 
stages  of  existence  ;  one  between  death  and  the  resurrection  of 
the  body,  the  other  after  the  judgment  of  the  great  day. 

The  first  is  called  the  separate  state,  because  the  soul  is  dis- 
joined from  the  body.  It  is  distinguished  in  the  Scriptures  by 
the  name  Hades ;  and  is  the  place  into  which  our  blessed  Lord's 
spirit  went,  during  the.  three  days  his  body  lay  in  the  grave. 
Of  this  separate  state,  the  Scriptures  inform  us  there  are  two  dis- 
tinct conditions — that  of  the  righteous  and  that  of  the  wicked  ; 
in  which  they  severally  await  the  righteous  judgment  of  God, 
with  a  consciousness  and  foretaste  of  what  that  will  be. 


558  THE    STATE    OF    THE    DEPARTED. 

That  the  state  of  the  soul  after  death  Is  not  a  state  of  insen- 
sibility, as  some  have  held,  is  plainly  set  forth  to  us  in  many 
passages  of  holy  writ ;  as  also,  that  it  is  a  state  of  conscious- 
ness, and  happy  or  otherwise  according  as  that  consciousness 
is  affected  by  the  tenour  of  the  past  life.  Thus  in  the  parable 
of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus,  the  latter  is  represented  as  car- 
ried by  angels  into  Abraham's  bosom,  and  comforted  there  ;  but 
the  former  awoke  in  hell,  being  in  torments — that  is  in  Hades,  or 
the  separate  state,  with  a  foretaste  of  the  misery  he  had  brought 
upon  himself,  by  his  sensual,  sinful  life.  For  to  suppose,  as 
many  too  hastily  do,  that  he  was  in  the  state  of  the  damned — 
because  the  word  hell  is  now  so  applied — is  contrary  to  the 
whole  warrant  of  Scripture,  which  uniformly  represents  the 
place  of  eternal  punishment  as  subsequent  to  the  general  judg- 
ment, and  consequent  on  the  righteous  sentence  then  to  be  pro- 
nounced. 

Thus,  also,  in  our  Saviour's  promise  to  the  penitent  thief — 
verily  I  say  unto  thee,  to-day  shall  thou  he  with  me  in  Para- 
dise, the  proper  meaning  is,  that  his  soul  should  accompany 
that  of  the  Saviour  to  that  division  of  Hades  appropriated  to  the 
righteous.  St.  Paul,  likewise,  who  was  caught  up  into  the  third 
heaven  long  before  he  died,  and  being  an  eye  witness,  must  be 
considered  good  authority,  had  such  a  clear  view  of  the  happi- 
ness of  the  separate  state  to  the  souls  of  the  righteous,  that  he 
was  filled  with  the  desire  to  depart,  and  he  with  Christ. 

St.  John,  also,  in  the  view  which  he  had  of  the  invisible 
world,  represents  the  separate  state  as  one  of  consciousness 
and  activity.  /  saw  under  the  altar,  says  he,  the  souls  of  them 
that  were  slain  for  the  word  of  God,  and  for  the  testimony  which 
they  held ;  and  they  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  saying,  Hoic  long,  O 
Lord,  holy  and  true,  dost  thou  not  judge  and  avenge  our  blood 
on  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth  1  And  white  robes  were  given  unto 
every  one  of  them,  and  it  was  said  unto  them,  that  they  should  rest 
yet  for  a  little  season,  until  their  fellow-servants  also,  and  their 
brethren,  that  should  be  killed  as  they  were,  should  be  fulfilled. 
And  St.  Jude  informs  us,  that  even  the  devils  themselves  are 
not  yet  consigned  to  the  place  of  eternal  torment.  For,  says 
be,  the  angels  which  kept  not  their  first  estate^  but  left  their  own 


THE    STATE    OK    THE    DEPARTED.  569 

habitation,  He  katk  reserved  in  everlasting  chains,  under  darkness, 
unto  the  judgment  of  the  great  day. 

Carelessly,  then,  do  we  express  ourselves,  my  hearers,  when 
we  say  that  death  consigns  us  at  once  to  heaven  or  to  hell.  It 
indeed  determines  what  our  ultimate  condition  shall  be,  for  the 
separate  state  has  no  provision  for  repentance  and  amendment, 
annexed  to  it.  The  present  life  is  to  every  man  that  portion  of 
his  being-,  by  which  eternity  will  be  determined.  As  the  tree 
falls,  so  it  lies.  As  the  grave  receives  us,  such  will  judgment 
find  us.  For  it  is  on  account  of  that  judgment,  and  to  bring  us 
together  to  receive  its  sentence,  that  the  body  is  kept  in  the 
grave,  and  the  soul  in  the  separate  state,  until  all  be  fulfilled 
which  relates  to  this  world.  Then  shall  that  capital  doctrine  of 
our  faith,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  be  realized ;  that  soul 
and  body  once  more  united,  may  appear  at  the  judgment  seat 
of  Christ,  to  answer  for  their  joint  conduct  in  this  life,  and 
according  thereto  to  be  jointly  happy  or  miserable  for  ever.  To 
that  end,  the  body  will  be  fitted  for  its  immortal  destiny,  being 
raised  incorruptible,  no  more  capable  of  change  or  decay. 

Such  is  the  nature  of  that  future  state,  to  which  we  are  all 
fast  hastening,  my  dear  hearers,  and  upon  which  our  departed 
friend  has  already  entered.  In  her,  no  further  change  can 
take  place,  until,  once  more  united  to  the  body  in  which  we 
knew,  we  shall  again  know  her,  and  stand  together  before  our 
Judge.  O  how  full  of  interest  is  such  a  thought,  my  brethren  ! 
How  full  of  comfort  in  the  loss  of  dear  friends  !  How  is  the  bit- 
terness of  separation  sweetened,  and  death  itself  converted  into 
a  friend,  whose  welcome  stroke  shall  restore  us  to  all  we  loved  in 
this  poor  world,  and  place  us  beyond  the  reach  of  change  or 
separation,  in  the  presence  of  God,  where  is  fulness  of  joy,  at 
whose  right  hand  there  are  pleasures  for  evermore  !  Well  may 
we  exclaim,  my  brethren,  what  hath  God  wrought  !  Well  may 
the  believer  exult  over  the  grave,  and  ask,  O  Death,  ichere  is 
now  thy  sting  ?  O  Grave,  where  is  now  thy  victory  ?  Thou  mayest, 
indeed,  triumph  over  us  for  a  season,  and  wring  our  hearts  with 
anguish,  under  thy  relentless  strokes ;  hut  thanks  be  to  God, 
which  givethus  the  victory,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

But  it  is  to  the  believer  only,  remember,  my  dear  friends,  that 


560  THE  STATE  01'  THE  DEPARTED. 

this  blessed  and  glorious  hope  is  given.  All,  indeed,  shall  be 
raised  ;  but  it  is  only  those  loho  sleep  in  Jesus,  that  he  ivill 
bring  with  him,  when  he  comes  to  judge  the  world.  All  shall 
be  raised  incorruptible,  that  is,  incapable  of  any  more  change  or 
decay  of  their  bodies  ;  but  it  is  the  faithful  disciples  of  Christ 
only,  who  shall  be  changed  into  the  likeness  of  his  glorious  body, 
while  the  fearful  and  unbelieving,  the  impenitent  and  ungodly, 
shall  be  driven  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  the  glory  of 
his  power,  icith  an  everlasting  destruction.  He  that  hath  ears  to 
hear,  let  him  hear ;  especially,  let  the  gospel  sinner,  who  is  dream- 
ing through  his  day  of  grace,  intent  only  on  the  things  which 
perish — who  thinks  not  of  the  account  he  has  to  give  to  God 
for  the  mercies  of  redemption,  and  the  means  of  salvation 
through  a  crucified  Saviour — nor  of  death,  nor  of  judgment, 
nor  of  heaven,  nor  of  hell,  but  only  of  the  world,  and  its  vain 
delights — O  let  him  stop  before  iniquity  prove  his  everlast- 
ing ruin  ;  and,  as  we  shall  surely  live  again,  let  him  treasure  up 
the  warning  now  given,  and  instantly  set  himself,  with  heart  and 
hand,  to  prepare  for  that  tremendous  change  which  death  makes 
in  the  condition  of  accountable  beings. 

III.  Of  which  preparation  I  am  now,  in  the  third  place,  to 
speak. 

However  complicated  the  process  may  be,  from  the  variety 
in  moral  condition  among  mankind,  the  preparation  itself  con- 
sists but  of  two  points,  viz.  :  Victory  over  sin,  and  the  renewal 
of  our  souls  to  that  holiness  in  which  the  image  of  God  con- 
sists ;  for  both  which,  God,  in  his  infinite  mercy,  hath  provided^ 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

As  sin  originally  banished  us  from  God,  it  must,  if  persisted 
in,  continue  to  exclude  us  from  all  hope  of  his  favour  and  pres- 
ence— for  he  is  the  unchangeable  God — and  deliver  us  over 
to  eternal  death  as  its  only  wages.  Hence  the  necessity  on  the 
part  of  man,  a  sinner,  that  the  guilt  of  sin  should  be  pardoned, 
and  the  love  and  the  practice  of  sin  be  destroyed,  if  he  would 
obtain  eternal  life.  And  hence  the  unspeakable  value  of  the 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  revealed  in  the  gospel ;  by 
whose  sufferings  and  death  in  our  behalf,  alone,  can  these  mighty 
benefits  be  obtained.  For  it  is  not  sufficient,  my  hearers,  that 
we  have  power  over  the   outward  acts  of  sin — in  other  words. 


THE    STATE    OF    THE    DEPARTED.  561 

that  we  be  moral  in  our  lives — to  prepare  us  for  the  presence 
of  God,  in  eternal  glory.  The  corruption  of  our  nature  must 
be  removed ;  the  desires  and  affections  of  our  hearts  must  be 
changed  ;  and  the  fallen  powers  of  the  soul  renovated,  to  the 
apprehension  and  entertainment  of  spiritual  and  heavenly  things. 
And  to  prepare  us  for  the  employment  and  occupation  of 
inhabitants  of  heaven,  we  must  acquire  a  relish,  in  the  present 
life,  for  the  worship  of  God  ;  we  must  learn  the  language  of 
praise,  and  the  practice  of  righteousness  ;  and  must  find  delight 
in  contemplating  and  imitating  his  glorious  perfections,  and  ex- 
cellent goodness.  This,  my  hearers,  is  indispensable  to  prepare 
us  for  the  blessed  society  of  heaven.  But  it  is  not  the  work  of 
any  human  power.  It  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  sanc- 
tify the  sinner  to  God,  and  fit  him  for  eternal  glory.  Yet,  as 
we  are  moral  beings,  and  only  as  such  accountable,  it  is  a  work 
in  which  we  have  to  bear  a  part ;  and  our  part  is,  to  hear  the 
word  of  God  and  to  keep  it ;  to  believe  his  gracious  promises 
made  to  us  in  Christ  our  Saviour  ;  to  restrain  the  outward  acts 
of  sin  and  disobedience  to  his  holy  laws ;  to  cultivate  com- 
munion with  him  by  prayer  and  meditation;  and  to  surrender 
ourselves  to  the  blessed  guidance  of  his  word  and  Holy  Spirit, 
working  in  us,  whereby  he  renews  our  hearts,  sanctifies  our 
fallen  nature,  and  prepares  us,  through  the  merits  and  death  of 
his  only  begotten  Son,  to  inherit  eternal  life  in  his  everlasting 
kingdom  of  never-ending  felicity,  and  unfading  glory. 

In  this  mighty  work,  behold,  my  dear  friends,  of  how  little 
value  this  deluding  world  is.  Alas !  all  its  wisdom,  wealth,  and 
power,  can  aid  us  nothing  in  the  transformation  of  our  souls 
from  sin  to  holiness.  O  let  it  break  its  hold  upon  our  hearts, 
thus  to  see,  that  in  the  work  of  our  salvation  it  is  not  our  friend, 
but  our  enemy  !  that  its  glory  and  its  pleasures  are  as  nothing, 
to  the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed  to  the  righteous — to  the  un- 
fading pleasures  which  await  the  faithful,  at  the  right  hand  of 
God  !  That  its  reproach  and  its  frown — yea,  all  that  it  can  in- 
flict— is  as  nothing  to  the  loss  of  God's  everlasting  favour ! 
That  the  combined  purchase  of  its  wealth  cannot  give  to  God 
a  ransom  for  a  single  soul,  or  redeem  our  dearest  friend  from  the 
grave !    Oh  !  could  wealth  bring  those  dear  ones  back,  over 

Vol.  n._71 


562 


THE    STATE    OF    THE     DEPARTED. 


whose  loss  the  bitter  tear  now  falls,  think  you  it  would  not  be 
poured  out,  even  to  nakedness?  Yes,  indeed  !  But  it  will  not 
do — we  shall  go  to  them,  but  they  shall  not  return  to  us,  till 
the  heavens  be  no  more. 

As  we  are  to  live  again,  then,  my  hearers,  let  it  move  us  to 
choose  that  good  part,  which  shall  not  be  taken  from  us,  but 
shall  endure  and  remain,  when  time  shall  cease  to  travel.  And 
let  it  stir  us  up  to  diligence,  to  consider  how  fast  our  time  is 
slipping  away ;  how  much  we  have  already  lost ;  how  little  may 
remain  ;  and  how  great  a  work  it  is  to  change  the  temper  of  the 
soul,  to  break  the  power  of  sin,  and  acquire  the  qualifications 
of  an  inhabitant  of  heaven.  My  hearers  !  it  requires  no  effort 
to  go  to  hell.  It  is  a  plain  road,  and  we  all  are  disposed  by 
nature  to  walk  in  it.  But  to  get  to  heaven,  is  a  strait  and  a 
narrow  way,  which  nothing  but  divine  grace  can  enable  us  to 
find  and  strengthen  us  to  persevere  in. 

To  that  grace,  then,  let  us  all  turn  with  earnestness,  assured 
bj  the  promise  of  God,  that  if  ive  ask  ive  shall  receive,  if  we 
seek  we  shall  find.  To  remain  careless  and  unconcerned  for 
the  awful  alternative  under  which  we  draw  our  hourly  breath  ; 
to  risk  the  uncertainty  of  our  frail  existence,  without  prepara- 
tion for  death  and  eternity  ;  to  meet  hereafter,  loaded,  not  only 
with  our  sins,  but  the  refusal  of  offered  salvation,  through  faith 
in  a  crucified  Saviour ;  disregarding  the  reason  of  our  minds, 
despising  the  open  warnings  of  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and 
stifling  the  good  motives  of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  stirring  in  our 
hearts  :  surely  this  is  not  in  the  course  which  rational  creatures 
should  pursue — who  know  that  they  are  to  live  again,  and  that 
their  future  life  must  be  happy  or  miserable,  according  to  the 
improvement  or  abuse  of  that  which  now  is. 

I  come  now,  to  conclude,  with  a  short  application  of  what  has 
been  said. 

Solemnities  of  this  kind,  my  brethren,  as  they  bring  our 
thoughts  to  bear  and  our  feelings  to  act  upon  the  common  end 
of  our  being,  are  justified  by  the  profitable  use  which  may  be 
made  of  them.  Who  that  see  this  flourishing  family  surren- 
dered to  grief,  and  shrouded  in  mourning,  but  must  realize  the 
affecting  truth,  that  they  also,  in  their  turn,  shall  become  the 


THE    STATE    OF    THE     DEPARTED.  563 

occasion  of  mourning  to  their  friends,  or  undergo  the  anguish 
of  separation  from  wliat  is  dear  and  valued?  But,  alas  !  for  man 
— poor,  fallen,  dying  man  !  how  ingenious  and  ready  to  apply  the 
warning  to  others,  and  reject  it  for  himself!  How  prone  to  let 
slip  the  good  impressions  of  a  serious  hour,  and  put  off  till  to- 
morrow, the  convictions  of  to-day  !  But  to-morrow — and  to- 
morrow— and  to-morrow — a  few  more  or  less,  my  friends,  will 
usher  in  the  morning  of  eternity  ;  when  neglected  warnings, 
rejected  opportunitie's,  and  ahused  mercies,  shall  press  upon  the 
conscience  of  the  gospel  sinner,  with  a  mountain  load  of  anguish 
and  despair. 

And  Is  it  so,  my  fellow-sinner  ?  Does  something  now  whisper 
to  thy  heart,  that  that  day  awaits  thee,  with  all  its  unspeakable 
consequences  unprovided  for  1  If  this  be  so,  O  turn  not  away 
from  the  friendly  monitor,  but  let  this  day  be  the  acceptable  time 
to  flee  to  the  cross  of  Christ  for  life  and  salvation  !  Consider 
how  uncertain  thy  life  is,  at  the  best ;  that  though  thou  mayest 
live  many  years,  yet  they  must  come  to  an  end,  and  the  narrow 
prison  of  the  grave  close  upon  years,  and  honours,  and 
enjoyments  ;  that  nothing  but  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  revealed  in  the  gospel,  can  remove  from  man  the  heavy 
curse  of  living  a  little  while  here,  in  sorrow,  suffering,  and  dis- 
appointment, to  perish  eternally  hereafter  ;  and  learn  to  bless 
God  for  the  mercies  of  redemption,  and  for  the  glorious  hope 
assured  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ  from  the  dead.  Pause  a 
moment,  then,  on  the  border  of  the  narrow  house,  appointed 
for  all  that  live,  and  ask  thyself,  my  fellow-traveller  to  another 
world,  on  what  thy  hopes  are  founded,  when  this  dream  of  life 
shall  be  changed  for  the  realities  of  eternity  ?  Ask  the  surviving 
connexions  of  the  deceased,  on  what  are  founded  their  hopes 
for  her,  and  for  themselves,  and  they  will  tell  you — yes  !  this 
day  of  their  calamity  will  open  their  hearts  to  feel  and  to  say — 
that  they  are  founded  only  on  the  mercy  purchased  and  reveal- 
ed to  their  faith  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ;  In  the  humble 
and  joyful  expectation  whereof,  they  commit  her  body  to  the 
earth,  and  her  soul  to  Him  who  bought  her  with  His  own  blood. 
They  will  tell  you,  that  those  hopes  are  derived  from  the  life  and 
immortality  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel,  in  the  steadfast  faith 


564  THE  STATE  OF  THE  DEPARTED. 

whereof,  they  trust  she  lived  and  died,  and  which,  through  divine 
mercy  they  hope  to  inherit  with  her,  in  that  everlasting  king- 
dom of  unmixed  happiness — where  God  shall  wipe  all  tears 
frOm  their  eyes,  ivhere  there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow 
nor  crying,  neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain. 

Oh  !    how  vain  and  trifling  are  all  the  promises  of  time  com- 
pared  with  this  eternal   recompence  !     And   how  strong  the 
obligations  to  a  religious  life  from  the  sacred  ties  of  family  affec- 
tion !   If  husbands  and  wives,  if  parents  and  children,  if  brothers 
and  sisters,  if  near  relations  and  dear  friends  would  secure  the 
enjoyment  of  those  holy  connexions  in  their  purest  and  highest 
degree,  they  must  look  beyond  the  present  life.  In  the  presence 
of  God  only  shall  be  the  full  fruition  of  happiness.     And  Oh  ! 
how  blessed  the  hope  to  those  who  are  left  behind,  when,  as  in 
the   present  case,  that  hope  is  encouraged  by  the  religious  con- 
dition of  the  friend  who  hath  left  us  !  Sorrow  not,  then,  you  her 
husband,  her  children,  and  friends,  as  those  who  have  no  hope  ! 
God  lent  her  for  a  season  to  those  to  whom  she  was  so  dear, 
and  to  set  an  example  of  faith   and   charity  to  all  around  her ; 
but  her  meek  and  humble  spirit  was  too  timid  and  gentle  for 
this  rough  world.     He,  therefore,  took  her  to  himself — to  the 
pure  and  peaceful  repose  and  security  of  the  just  in  the  sepa- 
rate state.    By  his  grace  he  called  her  to  number  her  days,  and 
prepare  for  the  great   account.     She   was  made  willing  and 
obedient  in  the  day  of  his  power,  and  is  now  gone  to  her  Saviour 
in  whom  she  trusted. 

Would  you,  then,  join  her  in  that  state  of  pure  and  peaceful 
expectation  of  yet  better  things,  to  which,  we  trust,  she  has 
passed  1  Would  you  escape  the  misery  of  eternal  separation 
from  one  so  dear  and  so  valued,  and  from  God  the  only  good  1 
Learn  to  view  the  present  life  in  its  true  colours  ;  learn  to  use 
it  as  the  uncertain  period  in  which  eternal  life  must  be  won  or 
lost ;  learn  to  fear  God  and  to  keep  his  commandments.  Thus 
shall  you  meet  again  in  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  a  rejoicing 
family  made  eternally  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  God.  Think, 
then,  that  you  hear  her  calling  to  you^  My  dear  husband,  my 
dear  children,  my  kind  friends,  disappoint  not  this  holy  hope, 
but  press  towards  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  your  high  calling  of 


THE   STATE    OF    THE   DEPARTED.  565 

God  in  Christ  Jesus.     Then  shall  we  indeed  live  again,  and 
sorrow  and  separation  be  known  no  more.* 


*  To  this  sermon  the  following  letter  was  found  appended : 

Williamsborough,  May  17,  1828. 
My  Worthy  Friend, 

In  transcribing  this  sermon  for  you,  which  I  have  done  very  cheerfully,  my 

earnest  wish  is,  that  it  may  be  made  profitable  to  your  soul  by  the  blessing  of  God. 

The  inquiry  which  it  presents  to  the  mind,  is  of  the  most  concerning  description, 

lying  at  the  very  threshold  of  religion,  and  rendering  it  a  reasonable  service,  or  a 

piece  of  mummery,  according  as  the  question  is  answered. 

Few  will  answer  it  otherwise  than  in  the  affirmative,  perhaps  none,  if  they  answer 
sincerely.  But  fewer  still,  it  is  to  be  feared,  will  do  more  than  give  their  assent  to 
it  as  a  truth  ;  neglecting  to  make  that  personal  application  of  it  to  themselves  which 
makes  the  truth  effective.  Against  this,  permit  me  to  caution  you,  as  I  thought  I 
perceived  a  disposition,  rather  to  speculate  on  religious  subjects,  than  to  act  upon 
them.  I  mean,  that  they  exercise  your  thoughts  as  important  subjects,  but  are  not 
apprehended  in  their  personal  application  to  yourself  as  ground  of  immediate  action. 
But,  surely  the  veracity  of  Almighty  God  is  sufficient  for  any  man  to  found  the  duty 
of  beUef  and  obedience  upon,  and  at  our  time  of  Ufe  (to-day  I  enter  my  57th  year) 
there  is  none  to  throw  away  upon  speculation. 

Ye  believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  me,  says  our  blessed  Lord.  And  he  here  spoke 
what  every  man  who  considers  what  God  is  in  his  perfections,  and  what  man  is  in 
his  imperfections,  will  be  brought  to  the  desire  of,  viz. :  the  interposition  of  some 
suitable  medium  of  connexion  and  intercourse  between  beings  so  infinitely  removed 
from  each  other,  as  a  pure  and  holy  God,  and  a  corrupt  and  sinful  creature.  This 
provision  of  the  wisdom  and  love  of  God  is  what  alone  makes  the  contemplation  of  a 
futiu-e  state  bearable  to  us.  Without  such  a  Saviour  as  is  given  to  our  necessities, 
it  is  terrible  to  think  of  another  life.  Annihilation  would  be  far  preferable ;  there 
being  no  reasonable  hope  to  man  as  he  is,  from  God  as  he  is,  without  a  mediator 
equal  to  the  requirements  of  the  parties  at  variance. 

This  being  so  in  the  judgment  of  sound  and  sober  reason,  and  confirmed  by  direct 
revelation,  our  part  is  clear  ;  which  is,  to  receive  this  truth,  and  to  act  upon  it,  work- 
ing for  life  in  the  obedience  of  faith,  and  renouncing  works  as  grounds  of  desert, 
relying  on  the  merit  and  righteousness  of  the  Redeemer  as  the  safe  ground  of  accept- 
ance, and  the  only  ground  on  which  an  imperfect  and  sinful  creature,  in  his  best 
duties,  can  entertain  hope  towards  God. 

May  he  direct  your  heart  and  life  to  Christ,  as  our  wisdom,  righteousness, 
sanctification,  and  redemption ! 

Your  affectionate  friend, 

JOHN  S.  RAVENSCROFT. 


SERMON  XLI3C. 

GOD    IS    WITNESS. 

1  Thessalonians  ii.  5,  last  clause. 
"  God  is  witness." 

In  meditating  on  the  Christian  system,  my  brethren  and 
hearers,  it  is  very  wonderful  to  perceive  how  exactly  it  is  fitted 
to  the  nature  and  actual  condition  of  that  creature,  for  whose 
advantage  it  is  constructed,  and  for  whose  benefit  it  is  revealed. 
So  striking  is  this,  that  I  have  not  the  least  doubt,  were  Chris- 
tianity presented  to  us  as  a  branch  of  natural  science  only,  this 
peculiar  feature  would  have  drawn  from  the  philosophers  of 
every  age  that  praise  and  admiration — that  earnest  inculcation 
of  the  wisdom  of  its  precepts — and  that  strong  and  united  testi- 
mony in  favour  of  its  real  influence  on  individual  and  general 
happiness — which  is  too  often  denied,  or  coldly  and  carelessly 
afforded,  by  the  same  persons  when  they  view  it  as  a  divine 
revelation,  and  a  law  obligatory  for  life  or  death  eternal,  on 
every  soul  of  man  within  the  compass  of  its  joyful  sound. 
Strange  that  the  wisdom  of  the  world  should  be  so  averse  to  the 
wisdom  of  God,  and  that  the  very  name  of  religion  should  take 
from  truth  and  wisdom  their  highest  character,  and  render  them 
unpleasant  and  unpalatable  to  the  hearts  of  men  !  Yet  so  it  is — 
men  who  respect  natural  verities,  and  act  with  care  and  caution 
according  to  their  results  in  the  affairs  of  this  life,  feel  disposed 
to  resent  and  resist  them  when  proposed  and  pressed  as  religious 
truth. 

Of  this  melancholy  fact,  the  proof  is,  alas  !  too  easy  ;  and, 
in  the  meditations  which  arise  from  my  text,  presents  one  trait  of 
human  character  in  connexion  with  the  application  of  the 
Christian  system  to  the  nature  of  man,  from  which  we  may  all 
derive  profitable  instruction. 

We  must  all  be  aware,  my  hearers,  of  the  influence  which 


GOD    IS    WITNESS.  567 

the  regulations  of  society  have  upon  our  conduct — that  we  are 
disposed  to  act  with  care  and  propriety,  according  to  the 
number  and  quality  of  those  who  are  spectators  of  our  conduct. 
And,  to  whatever  it  may  be  attributed,  certain  it  is,  that  society 
is  indebted  to  this  principle  for  much  of  the  decorum  and 
decency  of  its  enjoyments — for  a  very  powerful  restraint  upon 
the  vicious  propensities  of  the  dissolute  and  profligate. 

We  may  not  all  be  aware,  however,  that  among  the  many 
springs  and  motives  to  human  conduct,  to  which  the  arguments 
and  exhortations  of  the  gospel  are  addressed,  this  should  be  one. 
It  is,  nevertheless,  the  case ;  so  that  even  the  feeling  of  self-respect 
is  interested  in  behalf  of  our  souls,  and  made  conducive  to  the 
interests  of  eternity ;  and  the  man  who  can  control  and  keep 
under  a  habit  of  profaneness  or  intemperance,  while  under  the 
eye  of  those  whom  he  respects,  or  whose  respect  would  be 
lessened  by  the  indulgence  of  the  habit,  has  only  to  consider, 
that  he  is  continually  under  a  higher  inspection  than  that  of  the 
highest  of  his  fellow  creatures,  to  learn,  at  one  and  the  same 
instant,  the  control  he  has  over  his  own  actions,  and  the  obliga- 
tion he  is  under  to  exert  it.  For  if  either  the  fear  or  the  favour 
of  man  can  restrain  the  drunkard  from  his  beastly  propensity,  or 
keep  a  watch  upon  the  lips  of  the  profane  swearer,  even  for  a 
season  ;  if  there  are  companies  of  their  fellow  creatures  in 
whose  presence  they  could  not  be  tempted  to  transgress ;  how 
much  more  shall  a  sense  of  the  omnipotence  of  God  entertained 
and  realized,  operate  to  produce  watchfulness  and  self-denial ! 
Very  unjustifiable,  therefore,  is  the  common  excuse  made  for 
the  profane  and  the  dissolute,  that  it  is  a  habit  so  fixed  that  they 
cannot  control  it ;  because,  if  they  can  control  the  outward  act 
for  an  hour  or  for  an  evening,  the  same  self-command  may  be 
exerted  fo;>  a  day,  for  a  year,  for  a  life  time.  Hence  the  great 
danger  of  loose  associates — of  the  company  of  persons  \fho 
do  not  render  it  necessary  by  their  respectability,  that  we  feel 
some  respect  for  ourselves,  and  that  we  exert  that  respect,  to 
retain  some  share  of  it  from  others.  Evil  communications  corrupt 
good  manners  not  only  by  the  direct  contagion  of  vice,  but  by 
the  indirect  and  equally  fatal  influence  of  an  example  from  which 
restraint  is  removed. 


568  GOD    IS    WITNESS. 

While,  however,  the  gospel  appeals  to  every  principle  and 
to  every  motive  which  can  operate  upon  rational  natures, 
and  thereby  manifests  what  a  reasonable  service  it  is  ;  it  is,  still, 
in  subordination  to  those  higher  motives  which  flow  from  the 
attributes  of  Almighty  God,  and  the  obligations  of  redeemed 
man.  These  include  the  only  safe  foundation  for  either  theory 
or  practice  in  moral  duty,  and  are  set  forth,  in  their  whole  extent, 
in  the  words  of  my  text. 

God  is  witness. 

It  is  a  very  solemn  thought,  my  hearers,  and  very  full  of 
interest  to  accountable  beings — God  is,  at  this  moment,  witness 
betwixt  you  and  me,  and  betwixt  you  and  himself,  in  the  appro- 
priate business  of  this  day.  He  is  a  faithful  and  true  witness, 
and  will  make  an  unerring  record  of  my  faithfulness  in  declaring 
to  you  the  counsel  of  his  wisdom  and  love,  for  your  salvation. 
He  is  witness  to  the  springs  and  motives  by  which  I  am  actuated, 
and  knows  the  end  I  aim  at.  He  is  witness  to  the  true  motives 
of  every  one  of  your  hearts,  in  repairing  to  his  house  and  join- 
ing in  the  service  of  this  day — to  the  real  objects  you  have  in 
view,  and  to  the  actual  desire  with  which  you  have  met  to  hear 
his  truth — and  were  he  now  to  make  known  the  secret  of  every 
heart,  how  should  we  appear  1 

Yet,  my  dear  hearers,  but  a  little  while  and  these,  and  all 
other  secrets,  will  be  laid  open  before  an  assembled  universe. 
We  may  cloak  and  cover  them  from  our  fellow  worms,  and  if 
we  insist  upon  it,  even  from  ourselves,  in  a  great  degree  :  but 
what  availeth  it  1  The  truth  remaineth — the  real  truth,  and  will 
be  made  manifest  in  the  great  day  of  account — and,  Oh  !  what 
an  argument  it  is  for  the  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity  of 
Christian  conversation  ! 

Let  us,  then,  consider  what  is  revealed  to  us  of  God's  omni- 
presence. 

That  this  is  an  attribute  of  deity,  we  cannot  be  ignorant.  To 
the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  it  is  just  as  essential  as  the  attribute  of 
omnipotence.  And  the  frame  of  his  own  formation  is  to  every 
man  the  evidence  of  the  fact — He  that  made  the  eye,  shall  he 
not  see  ?  He  that  made  the  ear,  shall  he  not  hear  ?  He  that 
made  the  heart,  shall  he  not  understund  1     God,  then,  is  witness 


GOD    IS    WITNESS. 


569 


to  all  our  actions,  my  hearers  ;  to  every  thing  we  do  through 
life,  whether  in  public  or  in  private.  The  most  unimportant 
as  well  as  the  more  serious  and  influential  transactions,  are  all 
equally  known  to  him. 

But  this  is  only  a  small  part  of  that  inspection  which  he  exer- 
cises over  the  creation  of  his  will — He  scarcheih  the  reins,  and 
trieth  the  hearts  of  the  children  of  men.  The  inner  man — the 
true  temper  and  disposition  of  the  soul — the  real  spring  and 
motive  of  every  action — what  we  can  keep  secret  from  all 
others,  is  open  and  discovered  to  God.  This  is  the  awful  and 
tremendous  quality  of  this  attribute,  which  weighs  down  the 
heart  and  forms  a  fence  against  every  delusion  of  its  deceptions ; 
which  speaks  to  us  of  the  folly  of  all  pretences,  and  argues  so 
powerfully  in  favour  of  that  rectitude  which  fears  no  discovery. 
This  it  is  which  enforces  on  moral  creatures  the  sublime  rule 
of  doing  to  others,  as  we  would  they  should  do  unto  us.  For, 
under  an  inspection  which  cannot  be  deceived,  and  under  a 
judgment  whose  equity  is  bottomed  on  this  principle,  all  deceit 
and  wrong  towards  others,  all  crooked  and  unfair  advantages, 
whatever  may  be  the  estimate  of  men,  are,  in  fact,  injuries  to 
ourselves  :  God  is  witness,  both  to  the  motive  and  to  the  action, 
and  just  so  sure  as  we  would  have  complained  against,  or  resisted 
or  resented  either  the  motive  or  the  action,  had  it  been  towards 
instead  of  from  us — so  sure  will  it  be  changed  to  that  iniquity, 
on  which  God  cannot  look  with  the  least  degree  of  allowance. 
And  here  let  the  world,  and  the  traffickers  with  its  mammon, 
look  for  the  measure  which  shall  be  applied  to  its  code  of  moral 
right  and  wrong.  To  this  standard  let  them  bring  the  loss  or 
the  gain  of  its  unsanctified,  though  consecrated  maxims,  and 
learn,  that  that  which  is  highly  esteemed  among  men  is  yet  abomi- 
nation in  the  sight  of  God. 

To  the  omnipresence  of  God,  also,  is  to  be  referred  the  damn- 
able guilt  of  hypocrisy  in  religion  ;  that  degradation  of  God, 
which  puts  him  on  a  level  with  the  most  ignorant  of  our  fellows, 
and  offers  him  a  lie  instead  of  the  truth  ;  that  desperate  blasphemy 
which  would  make  him  a  party  to  the  deception  we  are  playing 
off  on  our  fellow  creatures,  and  promote  our  views  on  them  by 
professing  an  interest  in  him  ;  that  master-delusion  of  the  prince 

Vol.  II,— 72 


370  GOD    IS    VVITMESS. 

of  darkness,  which  would  cloak  vice  under  the  garb  of  godli- 
ness, and  cry  Lord  !  Lord  !  without  doing  the  things  whichhe  says  ; 
that  threefold  lie,  which  would  deceive  God,  and  bUnd  the  world, 
but  cheats  only  itself.  For  God  is  intness,  and  his  vision  is 
truth. 

Deeplyimpressed  with  this  solemn  truth,  the  inspired  Psalmist 
has  recorded  for  our  instruction  its  effect  upon  his  own  heart 
in  the  139th  Psalm.  O  Lord,  thou  hast  searched  me  and  known 
me,  thou  knoivest  my  doion-sitting  and  mine  up-rising,  thou  under- 
standest  my  thoughts  afar  off.  For  there  is  not  a  word  in  my 
tongue,  but  lo  !  O  Lord,  thou  knowest  it  altogether.  Whither  shall 
I  go  then  from  thy  Spirit  1  or  lo  hither  shall  I  flee  from  thy  presence  ? 
If  I  say.  Surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me ;  even  the  night  shall  be 
light  about  me.  Yea,  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee  ;  but  the 
night  shineth  as  the  day  :  the  darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike 
to  thee. 

And  shall  we  conceit  ourselves  wiser  than  an  inspired  pro- 
phet, and  think  to  hide  ourselves  from  God  1  Has  the  light  of 
Christianity  thrown  a  veil  over  the  Almighty,  and  obscured  his 
glorious  attributes  ?  Or  is  it  the  veil  of  the  world  and  the  flesh 
which  shrouds  such  multitudes,  as  with  grave  clothes,  from  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  truth  1  Yet  this  veil  will  be  rent  away, 
my  friends,  and  truth  will  appear  in  unchangeable  glory,  sup- 
ported by  that  Almighty  witness,  who  is  God  over  all.  Then 
shall  sinners  learn  that  no  lie  is  of  the  truth  ;  and  that  neither  the 
wisdom,  nor  the  cunning,  nor  the  power  of  men  can  prevail 
against  it ;  that,  eternal  as  its  author,  it  shall  endure  and  flour- 
ish m  majesty  and  brightness,  when  every  lie  and  deceit,  when 
all  fraud  and  hypocrisy,  shall  be  sunk  in  the  blackness  of  dark- 
ness for  ever. 

Put,  then,  these  considerations  together,  my  dear  hearers,  and 
let  them  determine  for  you  how  you  ought  to  be  impressed  every 
moment  with  the  solemn  warning  of  my  text — God  is  witness. 
He  is  witness  to  all  that  passes  betwixt  us  and  himself  in  the 
worship  we  pay  him,  to  the  motive  which  brought  us  here  this 
day,  to  the  sincerity  or  duplicity  of  our  hearts  in  drawing  near 
to  him  with  our  lips,  to  the  spirit  of  devotion  or  of  mockery 
wherewith  we  call  him  our  God  and  Father.     He  is  witness  to 


GOD    IS    WITNESS. 


571 


Cill  that  passes  betwixt  us  and  our  fellow  creatures  m  the  various 
relations  in  which  we  stand  to  them— as  magistrates,  as  citizens, 
as  heads  of  families,  as  friends,  as  neighbours— in  all  these  obli- 
gations, his  all-seeing  eye  is  over  us.  God  is  witness,  moreover, 
to  all  that  passes  within  us,  to  every  temper,  affection,  desn-e, 
passion,  and  lust — to  every  thought  of  the  heart,  every  word  of 
the  tongue,  and  every  action  of  the  hfe.  And,  Oh  !  what  a  God 
is  our  God  !  Almighty  in  power,  unspotted  in  holiness,  infinite 
injustice,  unchangeable  in  truth,  and  withal  a  God  of  judgment. 
This  it  is,  my  friends,  which  makes  his  witness  so  impressive  to 
us  ;  which  makes  the  warning  of  my  text  of  such  deep  interest 
to  all  who  hear  it ;  because  it  is  this  unimpeachable  testimony 
which  will  confound  or  acquit  us  in  the  great  day  of  eternity. 

Let  us,  then,  bring  home  these  affecting  considerations,  in 
their  application  to  ourselves. 

What  hath  God's  all-observing  eye  been  presented  with,  in 
the  years  of  his  grace  bestowed  upon  us  1  Have  we  lived  in 
the  fear  of  God,  and  presented  the  spectacle  of  grateful  and 
obedient  children  1  or  in  the  absence  of  that  fear,  which  says, 
God  is  not  in  all  our  thoughts  ?  Of  necessity,  one  or  the  other 
of  these  must  be  the  condition  of  every  soul  present.  For  to 
be  neutral  is  to  be  an  enemy.  Oh  !  it  is  an  awakening  thought 
to  reflect  how  little  of  God,  of  his  glorious  perfections,  and  of 
his  abounding  love,  and  unwearied  mercy  to  us  his  creatures, 
enters  into  the  plans  and  engagements  and  affections  of  man- 
kind as  probationers  for  his  favour  in  eternity.  But  not  to 
bewilder  your  thoughts  in  the  confusion  of  years,  what  has  this 
ever  present  witness  observed  in  you  during  the  past  week  ? 
Have  the  morning  and  the  evening  found  you  at  the  throne  of 
grace,  or  at  the  shrine  of  folly  "?  Has  his  word  been  your 
study,  and  his  will  your  guide  through  each  day  of  mercy  1 
Have  your  means  been  applied  to  promote  his  glory  and  the 
good  of  your  fellow  creatures  ?  or  have  the  flesh  and  its  lusts, 
the  world  and  its  vanity,  absorbed  your  thoughts  and  consumed 
your  means  1  Count  back,  I  beseech  you,  and  reckon  up  what 
you  have  done  in  this  one  week  for  God,  for  your  neighbour, 
for  your  own  soul — and  so  done  it  as  this  faithful  witness  must 
approve  of     Alas  !  if  one  single  week  of  the  thousands  some  of 


572  GOD    IS    WITNESS. 

us  have  passed  through  would  confound  our  skill  to  find  any 
thmg  for  God  and  religion,  what  must  his  pure  eyes  have  wit- 
nessed of  sin  and  folly  in  the  round  of  thoughtlessness  and 
levity  which  hides  death  and  judgment,  God  and  eternity  from 
the  eyes  of  accountable  beings  1 

But  suppose  a  single  Sabbath  were  to  be  the  test  to  every 
one  of  us — what  hath  God  seen  1  His  holy  day  hailed  with  joy 
and  gladness,  with  early  praise,  with  devout  preparation  for  its 
duties  and  privileges  and  with  earnest  engagement  in  his  holy 
worship  ?  Or  have  our  thoughts  been  after  our  own  hearts' 
lusts — wandering  far  from  God  even  in  his  presence  1  How 
often  has  it  passed  through  our  thoughts  on  that  holy  day.  Thou 
God  seest  me,  and  takest  account  of  all  my  ways  1  Oh  !  if  we  had 
to  rise  up  and  answer,  one  by  one,  and  to  state  truly  what  has 
occupied  our  thoughts  and  desires,  even  under  the  solemnity  of 
public  worship,  how  would  shame  and  confusion  of  face  over- 
whelm us  !  Yet,  my  dear  hearers,  God  is  witness  to  it  all,  and 
unless  a  better  mind  is  wrought  in  us,  and  repentance  obtain 
forgiveness,  will  proclaim  it  all  before  angels  and  men,  to  our 
eternal  shame  and  everlasting  despair.  And  if,  at  this  moment, 
we  cannot  excuse  ourselves — if  the  secret  admonitions  of  our  own 
hearts  prompt  the  conviction,  that  we  are  far  from  the  fear  of  the 
Lord,  what  will  it  be,  when  he  shall  arise  to  shake  terribly  the  earth, 
to  set  our  sins  in  order  before  us,  and  to  take  vengeance  for  them  1 
Will  the  idle  vanities  and  sinful  follies,  or  even  the  gains  and  the 
honours  of  the  world,  which  fill  our  hearts  and  hide  God  from 
our  thoughts,  compensate  the  loss  of  his  favour  1  Alas  !  they 
will  then  be  no  more  !  The  remembrance  only  will  remain  in 
remorse  and  unavailing  regret,  that  for  these  baubles  we  have 
sacrificed  the  joys  and  glories  of  a  heavenly  inheritance. 

Yet  there  is  a  redeeming  spot  for  man,  in  the  love  of  God. 
This  awful  and  ever  present  witness,  is  to  us  a  merciful  Saviour, 
and  a  faithful  witness  of  our  repentance  and  contrition.  He  sees 
the  first  turnings  of  the  heart  towards  him,  and  as  a  tender 
Father,  he  runs  to  meet  the  returning  prodigal.  He  sees  our 
every  want,  our  every  weakness,  and  provides  the  riches  of  his 
grace  to  supply  our  feebleness.  He  sees  the  snares  that  are 
spread  for  us  by  the  enemy  of  our  souls,  and  furnishes  the  wis- 


GOD   IS   WITNESS.  573 

dom  of  his  counsel  to  enable  us  to  escape  them.  God  is  wit- 
ness for  us,  if  we  turn  to  his  offered  mercy  ;  he  sees  our  tears ; 
he  witnesses  our  sorrows ;  he  hears  our  prayers  ;  his  Holy 
Spirit  returns  to  renew  our  hearts,  to  show  us  the  things  which 
are  Jesus  Christ's,  to  guide  our  feet  in  the  way  of  peace,  and 
prepare  us  for  a  place  at  his  right  hand — when  he  will  be  our 
witness  for  that  righteousness  to  which  is  promised  a  crown 
of  life.  Choose  ye,  thetiy  this  day,  that  testimony  which  you 
would  desire  to  have  in  the  great  day  of  eternity.  Deceive  not 
your  own  souls  with  the  vain  hope,  that  sin  is  less  ruinous  than 
God  hath  said.  The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die ;  is  the  testi- 
mony of  Him  who  cannot  deceive.  And  forget  not,  I  beseech 
you,  that  God  is  witness  to  the  warning  of  this  day — that 
he  will  require  it  at  your  hands — and  according  as  it  is 
received  or  rejected,  will  it  be  well  or  ill  with  you  for  ever.  O 
that  God  may  open  your  eyes  to  see,  and  your  hearts  to  perceive 
the  things  which  make  for  your  peace,  before  they  are  for  ever 
hid  from  your  eyes  !  That  the  solemn  truth,  thou  God  seest  me, 
may  go  with  you  to  your  homes — follow  you  through  all  your 
pursuits,  nor  cease  knocking  at  the  door  of  your  hearts,  until 
it  opens  an  entrance  for  the  truth  that  saveth,  in  the  knowledge 
of  God  and  of  Jesus  Christ  whom  he  hath  sent,  by  the 
teaching  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 


Here  I  might  close,  my  brethren,  but  the  impressive  and  im- 
portant ordinance  administered  this  evening,  calls  for  a  particular 
enlargement  of  the  momentous  truth,  that  God  is  witness  to  those 
who  have  openly  pledged  themselves  to  God  and  his  Christ, 
in  the  renewal  of  their  baptismal  covenant ;  and  have  once 
more  received  the  highest  assurance  compatible  with  a  state  of 
trial  to  moral  beings,  that  if  true  and  sincere  in  this  dedication 
of  themselves  to  his  glory  and  service,  his  almighty  grace  is  with 
them,  to  strengthen  and  direct,  to  sustain  and  comfort  them,  ia 
working  out  their  eternal  salvation. 

Therefore,  my  brethren,  who  have  been  this  evening  con- 


574  GOD    IS    WITNESS. 

firmed,  while  in  the  judgment  of  charity,  we  are  bound  to  take 
for  granted,  as  we  gladly  do,  that,  by  the  teaching  of  the 
Holt  Spirit,  you  have  been  brought  forward  to  profess  your 
faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  only  hope  of  fallen 
man,  and  solemnly  pledged  yourselves,  to  walk  after  the  ex- 
ample of  his  most  holy  life  ;  so  are  we  bound  to  remind  you 
that  God  is  witness  to  the  vows  you  have  taken  upon  yourselves 
— and  that  only  as  you  are  faithful  on  your  part,  can  you  ex- 
pect the  fulfilment  of  those  promises  which  are  made  to  you 
through  his  dear  Son — and  by  the  effect  of  which,  only,  can 
you  hope  to  succeed,  against  the  powers,  and  passions,  and  cor- 
ruptions leagued  against  your  souls. 

It  is  a  very  solemn  engagement  you  have  entered  into,  my 
brethren,  when  considered  merely  as  transacted  before  the  wit- 
nesses present — respect  for  yourselves  and  for  them,  must  have 
some  weight — he  is  a  hardened  person  who  can  fly  in  the  face 
of  society,  and  make  light  of  the  obligations  he  voluntarily  and 
publicly  undertakes.  But  what  is  this,  when  compared  with  the 
greater  and  undeceivable  witness  of  Almighty  God  1  He  reads 
your  heart  at  this  solemn  moment,  and  according  to  the  sincerity 
and  truth  of  your  purpose,  looks  down  with  complacency  and 
delight  upon  you,  as  honouring  his  holy  name  ;  or  turns  away 
with  abhorrence,  from  the  audacious  mockery  of  thinking  to 
deceive  his  heart-searching  ej^e. 

Treasure  up,  then,  in  your  hearts,  this  short  but  impressive 
truth — God  is  witness  to  the  contract  of  this  day.  And  let  it 
rule  your  heart  and  life,  to  walk,  as  seeing  Him,  who  is  invisible  ; 
to  act,  as  those  who  have  to  give  an  account  at  the  bar  of  judg- 
ment for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  and  are  furnished,  through 
the  mercy  and  goodness  of  God,  with  all  the  means  necessary 
to  secure  eternal  life,  through  the  merits  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  Hold  fast,  therefore,  the  profession  of  your  faith 
without  wavering ;  for  only  by  constancy  and  perseverance,  can 
you  expect  to  gain  the  prize  of  your  high  calling.  And  in  every 
trial  to  which,  in  the  sundry  and  manifold  changes  of  the  world, 
you  may  be  exposed,  remember,  God  is  ivitness  that  you  have 
this  day  pledged  yourselves  to  his  service  ;  that  he  cannot  be 
deceived  or  deluded  ;   and  that  it  is  only  to  him  who  is  faithful 


GOD    IS    WITNESS.  575 

unto  death,  that  the  crown  of  life  is  promised,  by  that  merciful 
Saviour,  who  hath  bought  you  with  his  blood — reconciled  God 
to  the  world  of  his  offending  creatures,  and  opened  a  new  and 
a  living  way  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  to  all  believers.  To 
whose  holy  name,  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  be  all 
honour  and  glory,  world  without  end. 


THE    END. 


Princeton   Theological   Seminary   Libraries 


1    1012  01196  2554 


if',  IT 


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